from john piper: I try to keep the destitution and suffering of the world before me. I keep records of these things. I ponder them and hold them before my mind. Because I fear the inoculating effects of wealth and of fine culture on me. In other words, for me, the more I take the lost and desperate condition of the world seriously, the more uncomfortable I feel with the symbols of wealth and refinement that tend to distance me from the poor -- including 195,000,000 Christian brothers and sisters in the least developed countries. I say this simply to let you know that those impulses are at work in me, and have an impact on my life and the way I feel called to do church.

Don't conclude from this that I naively think that the solution to poverty is for all of us to toss out our refrigerators and computers, take the bus, and close down the universities. But I do believe that if we could all spend a year in Dhaka, Bangladesh or Calcutta, India the way we think and feel about finery would be profoundly affected. I urge to keep these realities in the circle of your awareness, lest you become anesthetized by American abundance and affluence.

posted by Chaddo 10/18/2002 11:30:00 AM