I found a list of statistics in a book that I'm reading that reminded me of my blessings, my responsibilities, my priorities, my values, and my weaknesses. I felt like it mattered even more to be reminded of reality like this at Christmas time when so much of our energy and time goes to buying gifts and making wish lists, planning menus and cooking feasts, putting up decorations and stringing the twinkle lights. It's all about crowded malls and doorbuster sales, sparkling candles and decadent desserts, Christmas wrap and the season's hottest toys.
But what does it all look like in light of reality?
- One billion people in the world do not have access to clean water, while the average American uses four hundred to six hundred liters of water a day.
- Forty percent of people in the world lack basic sanitation, while forty-nine million diapers are used and thrown away in America every day.
- By far, most of the people in the world do not own a car. One-third of American families own three cars.
These are just a few of the numerous statistics out there about how the world really works, about how people live their lives, about all the things that other people don't have and will never have because we have it all. There's nothing left for the impoverished of the world to have, no resources, no extra dollars sitting around, waiting for the unfortunate poor to claim them. The United States of America makes up less than five percent of the world's population. This five percent of all people has twenty percent of all the world's wealth.
Shouldn't knowing these things change how we do Christmas, change how we do life every day, change how we feel about what we have?
* information borrowed from Jesus Wants To Save Christians by Rob Bell and Don Golden
