Giving Not Guilt
Today was my first day participating in Live Below the Line. It’s not that living on $1.50 worth of food each day is bad. What’s bad is doing this in the midst of others who aren’t. This all came to a head when I got home this evening.
Tonight my family ate a wonderful Indian dish filled with chicken, potatoes, tomatoes, rice and some spices that smelled delectable. What’s worse is that I got the meal ready for everyone. With each breath I smelled the wonderful food that I was sorting onto plates for my wife and children. My mouth was watering more and more as I savored the thought of eating it.
When they were all set I prepared my meal. A small portion of rice and beans with a fried egg on top. It was only my second meal of the day. My first was a small portion of rice and beans minus the egg.
What struck me was the juxtaposition of my small portion of bland food compared to the fresh smelling food filled plates of my family. In that moment I realized that this is the reality for billions of people.
They may not sit next to us at our tables every night, but in their scarcity they know of our abundance. What I felt was minimal by comparison. Consider my plight.
I’m a healthy person with more food in my refrigerator than I could eat in any one sitting. Through a choice of my own I am taking only five days to eat rice and beans and eggs, all the while knowing that after Friday I can resume my normal eating habits.
But what about the 1.4 billion who live like this everyday – not by choice. They are bound by circumstance beyond their control. They eat a small portion of whatever they can get and most days I eat as much as I’d like.
As I contemplate this reality, my feeling is not one of guilt. Guilt is a horrible motivator. A friend once told me that I should never feel guilty for what I have been given, but should only feel guilty for what I refuse to give away.
With this in mind, my question is “What can I give?” Perhaps this is a question you want to ask yourself too. It’s far more challenging that simply feeling guilt for what we already have.
A great resource for you to consider is Hunger Free: A Global Movement to End Hunger. It’s a project through World Vision. Take some time and learn about why we have hunger and how you can play a part to not just feed someone, but make hunger a distant memory.