Hungry People

By God's design fresh-water turtles, in their natural habitat, have an amazing abundance of food.  Eating fish, bugs, worms, clams, snails, and plants their diet is varied and they never go hungry.

Pondering this observable truth I realized that there is no excuse for an America in which anyone goes to bed hungry, especially a child.  Yet one out of four children go to bed hungry, and many do not eat for days at a time!  In California, Iowa, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois we grow enough food to feed the entire world!

Our government has spent millions in addressing the problem of hungry people.  Establishing a welfare system (in my opinion) has only exacerbated the problem.  Third and fourth generation welfare recipients indicate the failure of the system.  Unmarried, unemployable women have multiple children to increase the amount they can receive from the government.  Unemployable men, most of whom dropped out of high school in the ninth grade having already established a drug and/or alcohol abuse dependency are a common denominator in welfare recipients.  Children are not nurtured and loved and raised to be good and productive citizens.

Are we all so busy with our lives that we simply cannot see the plight of the poor in our nation?  Do these "invisible" neighbors go unnoticed because we are living paycheck to paycheck in our narcissistic delirium and feel that we don't have any way to help them?  Is it possible that we have become so isolated from others that we are afraid to reach out to help?  Perhaps the problem seems too large to know what to do!

Reality check!  Psalm 36:5-9 (Living Translation) "Your unfailing love, O Lord, is as vast as the heavens; your faithfulness reaches beyond the clouds.  Your righteousness is like the mighty mountains, your justice like the ocean depths.  You care for people and animals alike, O Lord.  How precious is your unfailing love, O God!  All humanity finds shelter in the shadow of your wings.  You feed them from the abundance of your own house, letting them drink from your river of delights.  For you are the fountain of life, the light by which we see."

Is it possible that government is not the answer to poverty?  I know!  All those government jobs, all those government pensions!  What am I thinking?  Of course we can all afford higher taxes, more government programs, more government employees, more government pensions, more government employee health care programs ad infinitum!  Oh!  No we can't!

The very reason we have people in poverty is covered in the first four verses of Psalm 36.  Words like "blind conceit", "crooked and deceitful", "refuse to act wisely", and "their actions are never good" are there!

The prayer of those who really want to help the poor is in verses 10-12.  "Pour out your unfailing love on those who love you; give justice to those with honest hearts.  Don't let the proud trample me or the wicked push me around.  Look!  Those who do evil have fallen!  They are thrown down, never to rise again."

Hungry people need people who can offer real help and real answers.  You can help.  Grace Resource Center helps these people every day.  Help us help them.