Complacency Kills

Millions have died in civil wars over diamonds.

People are enslaved for the farming of cocoa and of coffee beans.

Sweatshops the world over make people suffer for the sake of opportunity cost.

Children are armed before they learn to read.

People die from preventable diseases.

Walking kilometres to a contaminated water supply is the only option.

Bellies are bloated because of a lack of food.

- - - -

We wear the conflict diamonds.

Our coffee, chocolate and clothes are cheaper.

We believe our children have the right to education.

People stick needles in their forehead to look younger.

Our pets drink filtered water.

Our country suffers from an obesity ‘epidemic’.

- - - -

It just kind of overwhelms me sometimes. How could you ever love the world? How could you ever love the things of this world? Knowing that you have them because someone else is being broken for your luxury? Everything is tainted by suffering.

Money won’t fix it.
Diplomacy won’t fix it.
Policy changes won’t fix it.
International government organisations won’t fix it.
Charity organisations won’t fix it.
Bono won’t fix it.

Because if the world really wanted to, it could have done it by now. Creation is broken. Poverty will never be history.

Love, hope, faith, my trust in Jesus –they’re the only things that keep me from being sucked into the lie that this world can make you happy. No matter how much you have, you’ll always want more. Chasing after prosperity is chasing after the wind. It’s a life of constant competition and inadequacy as your worth is measured by your prestige and wealth. It’s a life that leads to inevitable dissatisfaction because there will always be greater and lesser persons than yourself.

Right now, as you are, you are rich. Disgustingly so. You want of nothing. Except for better than you already have. Do you not see? Do you not know?

If we stop to think about these things it’s only for a moment. How terrible. How shocking. It is unjust.

But we’re comfortable here. And they continue to suffer.

I don’t want to live in blissful ignorance.