The following quote is pasted in from this OxFam/One Campaign site

If twenty people sit down at your table, representing the world’s population:
Three would be served a gourmet, multi-course meal, while sitting at a decorated table and a cushioned chair.
Five would eat rice and beans with a fork and sit on a simple cushion.
Twelve would wait in line to receive a small portion of rice that they would eat with their hands while sitting on the floor.
----------------------------------------------------

Considering the bounty of food I was able to partake in this past Thanksgiving - and pretty much every day for that matter - this picture of the state of our planet is pretty eye-opening.

It was Teddy Roosevelt who said, "In a moment of decision the best thing you can do is the right thing. The worst thing you can do is nothing."

If so, what is the right thing? How can average Joe or Jane American "do the right thing" when it comes to the extreme poverty and hunger in our world? What does that look like?

Here's some options to get the conversation started:
a) nothing; we don't care . . . or we think our efforts will actually hurt more than help
b) change systems through political change (i.e. Bread for the World); vote for the politician who cares about these things; lobby for action to be taken
c) give financially to organizations who are making a difference on the ground (i.e. World Vision, Compassion Int'l, etc.)
d) make a career out of it; work for World Vision or Word Made Flesh and see peoples' lives transformed first hand
e) raise kids in such a way that they care about global issues
f) what else? what is the "right thing" for us to do? are we doing it?

It is with a smile and a newly inspired attitue that I re-direct you to this four minute video: HERE.

Why do things like this strike a chord within us? Why do generosity and unexpected love . . . even in the simplest ways move us? What if we all took a little effort to pack each day with a bit of this kind of magic?

A few quotes on the state of man:

"It is becoming more and more obvious that it is not starvation, not microbes, not cancer, but man himself who is mankind's greatest danger." -- Carl Jung

"For the first time I examined myself with a serious practical purpose. And there I found what appalled me: a zoo of lusts, a bedlam of ambitions, a nursery of fear, a harem of fondled hatreds. My name was Legion." --CS Lewis

"Whatever else is or is not true, this one thing is certain - man is not what he was meant to be." --GK Chesterton

My thought:
And yet God became one of us.

So now that Ted Haggard is the Jim Bakker of our day, how do we respond?
1) Pray for him and the church, New Life.
2) Pray for leaders everywhere
3) Personally strive to live a life of integrity empowered by the Holy Spirit
4) Strive to influence those around us to live above reproach
5) What else?

What are the implications?
1) Affirms peoples' presupposition that Christians are [fill in the blank]
2) Either knocks the wind out of young ministers-in-training or convinces them to pursue integrity tenaciously
3) Increases skepticism of successful, flashy Christian leaders everywhere
4) What else?

Link to a newsy article.