POOR WORLD, RICH WORLD

Factfulness: Ten Reasons We’re Wrong About the World  is a book that was published several years ago documenting how much more advanced we are than we think. When you look at the trajectory in several categories, across ALL continents, material conditions have vastly improved for everyone. And this includes the blimp on the radar that was 2020. This does not mean things cannot improve more….it is just that often we are not presented with the full picture. Our world is vastly richer than at any previous time in history.

But it is certainly poor, people are poor, as Pastor Mark pointed out last Sunday, in that they are full of rage, uncertainty, and violence. And that is where Isaiah comes in:

61:1 The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me,

    because the Lord has anointed me

    to proclaim good news to the poor.

The antidote for our poverty is not money, but Christ. What is the opposite of rage, of uncertainty, of violence? One word serves for all: peace. What do we need more of in this coming election year? Peace. What do Russia, Ukraine, Israel, Palsteine, and many, many other countries need? Peace. And He is the Prince of Peace.

So if we are to follow Him, we need to be instruments of peace. In the coming weeks, let us think more and more of how we can fulfill this particular calling as followers of Christ, by His grace and wisdom. Amen.