Some Pretty Remarkable Statistics

These are from an article on Burnside Writers Collective, which has recently been rocking my world. The four of you who read this, should go read that. Particularly you.

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Pretty Remarkable Statistic #1: 1.1 billion people are without safe drinking water, while Americans consume 26 billion liters of BOTTLED water annually.

Pretty Remarkable Statistic #2: Every 16 seconds somewhere in the world someone dies of hunger, while 2 out of 3 Americans are considered overweight.

Pretty Remarkable Statistic #3: Americans spend more annually on trash bags than nearly half the world does on ALL goods.

Pretty Remarkable Statistic #4: An estimated 22 million people died from preventable disease in 2001; 10 million were children.

Pretty Remarkable Statistic #5: 1 in 16 women in sub-Saharan African dies in childbirth.

Pretty Remarkable Statistic #6: 40% of the world lacks basic sanitation facilities.

Consider the costs of eradicating some of these needs:

The cost of basic education for all: $6 billion.

The cost of water and sanitation for all: $10 billion.

The cost of reproductive health for all women: $12 billion.

Basic health and nutrition for all: $13 billion.

To put this in perspective, consider that Americans spent just over $18 billion on consumer products (largely for Christmas gifts) during the weekend of November 24-26, 2006, which is the largest shopping weekend of the year.

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Sometimes numbers and statistics screw with my head, and quite honestly they can be manipulated. I think these are from a pretty legitimate source. But like my pastor says, numbers equal lives.

I believe that these numbers reflect the most crucial issue of our time. Bigger than the war in Iraq, bigger than global warming, bigger than what Paris Hilton did last night, or when the next Pirates of the Caribbean flick comes to a theater near you. These numbers, aside from the gospel, are the most important information you will see today, or tomorrow or the day after that, because the numbers reflect the status in which our world exists.

Yes, they maybe disheartening, and even heartbreaking, when I actually choose to think about what these numbers mean (millions of people dying without knowing the love of the God who created them) I am nearly paralyzed with sorrow. It seems like too big of a problem to even try.

But more than that, these numbers reflect an opportunity. An opportunity to be used as an instrument of God's grace to extend healing, justice and mercy to those widows and orphans who are the very closest to the heart of God. An opportunity to let your (my) mind and your (my) heart be transformed by the Holy Spirit, because it is only when God renews us from within that any of our outward actions will matter at all. This is not about me making myself feel good because I gave some money to the poor and needy. This is about coming into a deeper understanding of who my God is and what is of value to him.


James 1:27
Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.

Proverbs 24:11-12
Rescue those being led away to death; hold back those staggering toward slaughter. If you say, "But we knew nothing about this," does not he who weighs the heart perceive it? Does not he who guards your life know it? Will he not repay each person according to what he has done?

I'm not saying that we all have to quit our jobs at this very moment to go to Africa or India or China, but thanks be to God that we have jobs! And jobs equal paychecks. Paychecks equal dollar bills and no matter the ethics of it, dollar bills equal the beginning of the end of this problem. I do believe that no matter how much money the United States and Europe throws at Africa that the problem will not be completely solved.

All of these crisises are more than just a lack of money or infrastructure or education. These problems are all indicative of the most basic problem that any human being has: SIN. Our world is devastated because of sin and the consequences our own flesh has ravished upon us for generations. Because we at our core are the problem, there is nothing we can do with our own hands that will solve it.

The solution can only come from outside of ourselves. The only solution is the love and grace the Jesus Christ offers us. The only solution is a relationship with the One who made us, and who rescues us from of all these problems that we have gotten ourselves into.