A co-worker sticks her head into a neighboring cubicle. “Want to grab
a bite to eat?” she asks a fellow worker. “I’m starving.”
The reply is immediate – “You bet. I’m so hungry
I could eat a side of beef.”
And off they go, seeking nourishment.
Chances are, they will not have to look far – it seems
restaurants are on every corner. Finding one usually is not difficult. Most
often, the difficulty is in choosing one.
Of course, some people are not so lucky.
Aco-worker sticks her head into a neighboring cubicle. “Want to grab
a bite to eat?” she asks a fellow worker. “I’m starving.”
The reply is immediate – “You bet. I’m so hungry
I could eat a side of beef.”
And off they go, seeking nourishment.
Chances are, they will not have to look far – it seems
restaurants are on every corner. Finding one usually is not difficult. Most
often, the difficulty is in choosing one.
Of course, some people are not so lucky.
They have no choice, no burger shop just down the road –
and no monetary means to visit it even if it was close.
And rest assured, one never will hear these people speak in
exaggerated terms about eating. They will not joke about it.
Instead, their faces will tell their stories.
Their appearance will suggest their want.
Their eyes will reveal their need.
They are the world’s hungry.
They live in other lands, hidden countries with hard-to-pronounce
names.
They live in major cities, lost among the tens of thousands
who rush the highways and sidewalks each day.
They live in communities all across this country, forgotten,
despairing of rescue.
They are legion, numbering the millions, even in the hundreds
of millions throughout the world.
They are the victims – of circumstances, bad choices,
war, poverty, ethnic hatred, political wraggling, governmental apathy.
They struggle, they hope, they pray they fear, they work, they
weep, they wait, they suffer, they endure the sicknesses of malnourishment,
they watch themselves fade … and in so many cases, they die.
But there always is another, another hungry child, another
family lost in the pain of poverty, another despairing father and mother who
wonder if there is a way out and how to find it.
Indeed, in a time of national and even global economic advance,
it is unbelievably disturbing to realize 4 million American children go to bed
hungry each night, that 13.5 million Americans live below the poverty level
of $13,884 for a family of three, that more than 800 million persons in developing
countries are chronically hungry and that almost 8 million people in Ethiopia
are facing horrific famine.
People already are dying there. Children are dying – because
they have no food.
“The poor shall never cease out of the land,” Deuteronomy
15:11 begins – and the facts and faces of the world’s hungry certainly
confirm that proclamation.
However, through the years, some have used that sentiment to
excuse inaction on behalf of those in need. “We’ll always have poor
and hungry people,” they reason. “Nothing we can do about it. No need
to try. We can’t end poverty or hunger.”
Unfortunately, even some Christians have used such reasoning,
choosing to focus on “saving souls” instead of tending to bodies.
Indeed, the present-day church as a whole receives “less-than-satisfactory
grades” when it comes to heeding biblical commands related to hunger and
other so-called social concerns, says Richard Land, president of the Southern
Baptist Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission.
In turn, Land emphasizes the need to focus on evangelism and
social ministry alike, making sure that efforts in one always includes the others
as well.
Southern Baptists are seeking to do just that – through
a world hunger fund that uses 100 percent of gifts for hunger relief and through
ongoing ministry and missions efforts across this nation and around the world.
Let others argue about whether poverty and world hunger ever
can be eradicated. For their part, Southern Baptists have determined to do what
they can where they can for as many as they can.
That includes efforts underway to assist those facing famine
in Ethiopia – as well as those in need in this nation.
Still, there is never enough money or workers. More poor always
are waiting.
So much more needs to be done.
“Malnutrition and hunger in America are dangerous partners
in a silent crisis,” Land emphasizes in the summer issue of Light, the
Southern Baptist Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission magazine.
“The plague of poverty in our nation and around the world
demands a response from people of faith. American Christians, individually and
collectively, need to once again embrace both the biblical mandate to proclaim
the gospel’s good news and to practice the gospel’s good works.”
In other words, it is time for Christians to open their Bibles
and read the full text of Deuteronomy 15:11.
“For the poor shall never cease out of the land: therefore,
I command thee, saying, Thou shalt open thine hand wide unto thy brother, to
thy poor and to thy needy in thy land,” the verse reads.
For a people avowed to live by the unchanging written Word
of God, there can be no reasoning away that challenge.
(For world hunger resources and materials, persons may contact
the SBC Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission at 615-244-2495 or visit the
agency’s website at www.erlc.com)