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Author: Prof Johnson Odesola
Posted to the web: 10/15/2010 4:06:06 PM

WHAT SHOULD CHRISTIAN DO ABOUT THE PLIGHT OF THE POOL IN OUR SOCIETY AND IN OTHER PART OF THE WORLD

 

The Bible says that it is Godâ's gift to man that everyone should eat and drink (Ecclesiastes 3:13) yet tonight half of the people living in our world will go to bed hungry. And tomorrow 15,000 people will literally starve to death. That is the daily death total of people who die of hunger. Why, when for the first time in human history we have we have means to feed all mankind? I think President Kennedy put the answer in the sentence: ‘We lack only the willingness to share.’

To start with those neat little economic labels that split mankind into separate segments reflect in themselves our selfishness and greed. For instance, 25% of the worldâ's population enjoy and exploit 75% of the worldâ's wealth and natural resources. Meanwhile the three-quarters of the worldâ's population – the so-called third World – eke out their existence on the remaining 25% of the worldâ's wealth.

 

The plight of the so called third world

Now in considering the plight of the Third World there is the tendency to feel overwhelmed by the enormity of its problem. Bombarded by reports through the press, Radio and Television, there is a temptation to switch off or’ do an ostrich’ in order to maintain our sanity. Perhaps we feel like Roberts Louis Stevenson when he wrote:

                             

                                The World is so big and I am so small,

                                       I do not like it at all, at all.

 

But as Dr Schumacher, one of the worldâ's leading economists, states, ‘Small is beautiful.’ In other words the smaller the project or programmed the more likely its success and in the most underdeveloped regions of Africa, Asia and Latin America the Christian Church has proved this simple theory in setting up model agriculture units, public health programmed, trade training schools, etc. together national Christians, missions and Christians agencies such as our own, have seeing this thesis in action; small is both beautiful and meaningful. It provides help for the present and offers hope for the future. And it helps people to help themselves, which, in the long run, is the most effective form of assistance that anyone can be given.

Nevertheless there are those who ask, ‘But why do you bother? The needs are overwhelming and your resources are totally inadequate. Itâ's just a drop in the ocean’. Maybe. But as it has been said, ‘the ocean is made up of many drops,’ Mother Theresa Calcutta shares a similar statement with Malcolm Muggeridge in his book Something Beautiful for God. We ourselves feel that what we are doing is just a drop in the ocean. ‘But if that drop was not in the ocean I think the ocean would be less because of that missing drop’. Besides, the fact that I cannot do everything is no reason why I shouldn’t do anything. So what am I as a Christian called to do?

 

Responding to the need

 

Firstly, am called to aware – to be aware of the needs of the world in which I live and to be aware of my responsibility in helping to meet some of those needs.’ It is the task of the Christian man and Christian society, ‘says Michael Green in his book Jesus Spells Freedom ‘both to keep informed as to what is threatening the world and to press for truly human priorities to be kept uppermost in national and international policies.’ This kind of awareness will govern the way I vote at the elections, determined my life style, clarify my priorities and give me more realistic scenes of perspective. It could even give me a new sense of vocation and alter all my direction in life.

In an all-out attempt to foster and increase this awareness most Christianâ's agencies use a whole range of publications and educational aids

 

Called to care

Secondly, we are called to care. ‘If a mother cares’, runs the Seven Up commercial, ‘the different is clear.’ And if we as Christians care – the different must be clear. ‘Little children,’ write the apostle John, ‘let us stop just saying we love people, let us really love them and show it by our actions’ (1 John 3:18, Living Bible). For some, this could possibly lead to personal service in the missionâ's field. Itâ's a salutary thought that you could be the answer to somebodyâ's prayer for meeting a need that God wants to meet through you. Maybe God is waiting to express his love and care through you in our continent, Asia or Latin America.

I once heard that in Bangladesh one of the NGO nurses sitting at supper after a particularly harrowing day in the refugee camps. ‘I wonder at times’, she said, ‘if God really cares for the people that are there.’ It was a question born out of watching relentless suffering and hardship. But with great presence of mind a senior missionary said quietly, ‘Yes he cares. And you are there because God cares.’ And it could be that God may want you there as an expression of his care.

 

Called to share

Thirdly, we are called to share. In the last chapter of the epistle to the Hebrews, the writer encouraged his leader to offer up through Jesus ‘a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that acknowledge his name’ (13:15). But, as the old prayer puts it, this praise is not only to be declared with our lips; it must also be demonstrated in our lives. This inter-relation becomes self evident in Hebrews 13 when the message goes on to say, ‘Do not neglect to do well and to share what you have, for such sacrifices are pleasing to God; (16).

Remember that incidents early in the Gospel when the people came to John the Baptist with the desire to make amends. ‘What are we to do then?’ they ask, and you will recall the answer: ‘whoever has food must share it’ (Luke 3:10-11). If then as Christians we really care, it will be shown by the extent in which we are prepared to share with others what we ourselves so richly enjoy. For, as sent John says, ‘If anyone has the worldâ's goods and sees his brother in need yet closes his heart against him, how does Godâ's love you abide in him?’(1John3:17).

 

Burden of prayer

Fourthly, I am called to bear part of burden of prayer for my Continent.’ Art thou weak and heavy laden, ‘runs the old hymn, ‘cumbered with a load of care?’ in times of personal temptation, difficulties we rejoice at being able to follow the hymn writerâ's advice and ‘take it to the Lord in prayer. ‘But we must learn to widen the scope of this petition if we are prayerfully to bear the burdens of our World. Each night after watching the news report on American television I learnt that Bill Graham and his wife switch off and bow in prayer to God for the places and the people they have just been watching.

Itâ's a good start. ‘Pray much for others, ‘says Apostle Paul, ‘plead for Godâ's mercy upon them gives thanks for all he is going to do for them’ (1 Timothy 2:1, Living Bible). For a Christian, this is one of our highest calling and ultimately one of our most meaningful contributions in co-operating with God for meeting the needs in his world.

 

Further reading

What about the Third World? Roy Billington (IVP)

Johnson Odesola (PhD) is a Regional Coordinator in the Redeemed Christian Church of God and a Professor of Divinity with Trinity International  Institute of Advance Studies UK/US. He is presently a missionary in Southern Africa based in Zambia