Would You Feed The World?
It's serious business. I'm curious,if you'd been in charge of fixing the financial mess- would you have bailed out the banks from the top down? If you're a US taxpayer- it's what we're in the process of doing.
One Trillion Dollars: one million, million- if they stretched dollars from your house into space- it'd reach the sun, if you started a business when Christ was born and lost a million dollars a day, you'd be in business for for another couple hundred years before you lost a trillion dollars... if you started counting to a trillion right now, as fast as you can, you'd still be counting in the year 32,000ad and you'd still not get to a trillion!
Over 1.2 million homes went into foreclosure in the US in 2007. Most experts believe another 1.7 million... possibly as high as 2 million will go into foreclosure in 2008. Spend one trillion dollars from the bottom up and the US taxpayer could have given every family facing the loss of their home a cool $500,000- to get their house in order. Imagine- 2 million Americans saved from losing their homes, able to pay their lender, settle with their credit card company, get a fresh start... and all that money... every penny of that same one trillion dollars would still have ended up in the hands of the bankers.
Too generous a bailout? Why not $50,000- to 20 million US families facing a financial crisis? That's still one trillion dollars. Talk about an infusion of cash into the economy!
Top down or bottom up? What works? What last? What steps apart from the political arena and steps into the crisis with care and compassion?
God reached out to heal our relationship with Him from the bottom up. Gave His Only Son, Jesus Christ, to live poor, abandoned and rejected... eventually crucified by the power brokers of His day... but the dispossessed, the sick, rejected, the working stiffs... followed Jesus. Because He worked from the bottom up, in love and sacrifice, His church is still healing around the world today. Not everyone believes in God or has placed their faith in Christ... but there's almost universal acceptance of His Love, His Life, His Lessons... it's hard to resist people who give completely from the bottom up.
Hurricane Ike devastated Galveston and much of the Texas coastline. Imagine for a second that you sent money to help out, only to discover that it went to a collection of wealthy leaders in Dallas... when you complained, you were told that your giving would "trickle down" and eventually reach those hurting on the coast... once everyone in Dallas had their house in order.
Sound crazy? Sort of like sending a trillion dollars to bankers in NY, hoping to save a family in Riverside?
Credit... it comes from the Latin, credos: it means belief... as in I believe in you- so I'll give you credit. (Wish I could find a link to the radio commentary I heard on this so I could give them the credit!) In church we're more familiar with the term as "creed." I believe our political leaders need our prayers for wisdom- now more than ever. We can also pray from the bottom up... remember, 2 million homes in foreclosure means 2 million families at the end of their hopes and dreams... so many of them live in our neighborhoods, attend Central Community. Please keep them in your prayers as well.
Me? I'm still trying to calculate the tithe on a trillion dollars!
blessings,
Eric
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