sending the rich away empty

This past couple of weeks or so I've been straining against the confines of my 'diet' - perhaps more so because the end is closer than it has been for ages (what a surprise).  At home it is fairly easy to adapt, once you've changed around your store cupboard and learned alternative recipes, but a diet that is both yeast free and dairy free is a challenge when out at an event or visiting someone.  Sorry, no, I can't have that.  No, sorry, I can't have that either.  It can actually get rather awkward. Plus I end up sitting around with my tummy rumbling and my waistband getting so loose you could perch a sizeable kitten in it (not that I'd want to).

Coincidentally, the 'end' of this exclusion diet will be around Easter itself - although re-introduction will be deliberately slow.  It will feel like coming to the end to a Lenten fast - except it's lasted six months instead of 40 days.  It's not been a fast for that kind of reason, of course, and I shouldn't tell you if I had been 'fasting' in this way.

Interesting tangent - should Christians even ask each other what we're giving up for Lent?  Didn't Jesus say we weren't to draw attention the the fact?  Fascinating to reflect on this, and may consider it at a later date.  In the meantime, I will steer myself back on course, because what I have to say is important (gosh).

Despite not fasting for this kind of reason, nonetheless my diet of denial keeps reminding me of the sheer luxury and amount of our food we have in our culture.  The array of food lined up as refreshments at events, party food, dining out, cookery books and culinary programmes - what new taste can we find?  Who is the best chef, anyway?

We have so much.  As I consider this, the words from Mary's song leap into my mind -

He has filled the hungry with good things but has sent the rich away empty. - Luke 1:53

That's God's way; that's good news. His is the way we don't expect, defying predictability, turning everything around.

We are so rich.  Many have no choice as to what they eat - or even if they eat.  Rumbly tummies and minor hunger pangs are nothing compared to the sufferings of those who struggle to eat once a day.  Are we, as the body of Christ, as representatives of the good news, enacting the kingdom principles of the first being last, of the poor being blessed, of the hungry being filled?

Last week I attended a public talk at which I heard the following statistic. I wrote it down and stared at it, underlining it as if I needed convincing further.

Annually, 850 million people suffer from being malnourished, while 1 billion are clinically ill from obesity. 


The extreme is gut-wrenching.

• He has filled the hungry with good things but has sent the rich away empty.

• 850 million people suffer from being malnourished, while 1 billion are clinically ill from obesity. 

Everything is the wrong way round when compared to the pattern of the kingdom.  And we cannot escape it; we cannot profess ignorance.  In a culture where our communities are vast and our networks worldwide, can we really exist in our little bubble of plenty and assume we'll get a pat on the back and a smile?

My disappointment at not being able to eat a cupcake is laughable.



Image:  BBC Good Food website

Blog Action Day 2010: Water

'Always use fresh water.'

This is the advice on the back of my packet of tea bags, which I fish out each morning to make myself a cuppa (it's green tea or peppermint these days, due to my new dietary restrictions).  I don't always bother refilling the kettle with fresh water; sometimes I do.

However, I can't help but think of those who have to walk miles and miles to 'use fresh water'.  And this 'fresh' water is not clean.  It carries diseases which cripple and kill.  Thousands of children die every day from water related illnesses.  Do we think of that, when we boil the kettle in the morning?  When the box of teabags instructs us that we should go to the tap and get some more?


Blog Action Day 2010: Water from Blog Action Day on Vimeo.

Today is Blog Action Day 2010, and this year's theme is water.  This has been a topic I've been thinking about for months - water and sanitation, and how they can change the world.  I'm still wrestling with an article on the subject, trying to get across the point that if these things were dealt with, the ripple effect would be incredible.  It would free up resources and money.  It would re-energise economies and prevent so many sick days.  It would save the lives of millions.  It would protect the vulnerable, who collect water in dangerous areas and have no safe place to use the toilet.  It would vastly improve maternal health.  It would help the poorest people in the world.  It would give girls better opportunities - think.  Women and girls do most of the water collecting.  Girls drop out of school because there is no toilet.

Water related illnesses kill more people than war.

How is this acceptable?

How is this acceptable when I refill my kettle and dunk my teabag?  When I wash my hair whenever it needs it - in water far better than millions have to drink? When I run a bath to 'wind down' at the end of the day, when elsewhere in the world people have to go to the toilet feeling tense, undignified and afraid?

I for one want to raise my voice.

I want to raise my voice and say:

This is unacceptable.

This is unjust.

This is appalling.

This is unnecessary.

And I want to be heard.

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