Because I have been given much

There's a hymn that we sing in church that goes:

Because I have been given much, I too must give.
Because of thy great bounty, Lord each day I live.
I shall divide my gifts from thee with every brother that I see,
who has the need of help from me.

Because I have been sheltered, fed by thy good care…
I cannot see another’s lack and I not share-
my glowing fire, my loaf of bread-my roof’s safe shelter over head,
that he too may be comforted.

Because I have been blessed by thy great love dear Lord,
I’ll share thy love again according to thy word.
I shall give love to those in need. I’ll show that love by word and deed,
thus shall my thanks be thanks indeed.

The words were written by Grace Noll Crowell (1877-1969).

As I was thinking about Haiti this morning, feeling guilty that I am so preoccupied with my own very trivial concerns in light of their terrible suffering, I thought of that poem. And I realized that feeling guilty about being so blessed does no one any good. I don't have any answers about why disasters happen. I do know that much suffering in the world comes from ignorance, from want and from greed, from people deliberately choosing to follow evil paths. Natural disasters are just that. Natural. Our earth has its weaknesses, its faults, just as we humans do. And from time to time those weaknesses and faults cause a catastrophe, just as human weaknesses and faults do.

We can help Haiti regardless of whether we have surplus money. If we lack money, we can help them by praying for them in whatever way we believe. If we are healthy enough, we could sacrifice by giving up a meal and sending those funds to whatever relief agency we feel comfortable with.

But, as one news commentator pointed out, this catastrophe is only one more item in Haiti's long litany of suffering through the decades and centuries. From time to time countries come up on people's radar through disasters or war and great humanitarian efforts are mounted. And then another disaster comes along.... When I think of Haiti, I think of Scrooge's exchange with the Ghost of Christmas Present. As his time with the ghost was almost finished, the ghost revealed to Scrooge two emaciated children shivering beneath his robes, and said that the boy was called Ignorance and the girl Want. The spirit warns Scrooge, "Beware them both, and all of their degree, but most of all beware this boy, for on his brow I see that written which is Doom, unless the writing be erased." Scrooge shudders and asks the ghost whether the children have "no refuge, no resource," and the spirit retorts with Scrooge's same words, "Are there no prisons, no workhouses?" And Scrooge realizes how smug and oblivious to the suffering around him he has been; he has himself been ignorant and because of his ignorance, those who could have been helped by his great wealth went wanting.

Ignorance does indeed spell doom in so many ways. For those in poverty stricken countries, it means that they lack the knowledge and means to create sustainable communities, to build safe housing and sanitary conditions of life. For others in wealthier communities, ignorance can lull them (us?) into thinking that what happens to others doesn't affect them and, more tellingly, that it can't happen "here." Or that danger can somehow be kept at bay by walls or by weapons or by someone else's expertise. But it can't as we have seen time and time again over the last few decades.

We are all responsible for our own and other's safety. We have been given much indeed here in the so-called "western world." Knowledge at our fingertips, choices, choices, choices.

May we choose well in our daily lives so that we can bless ourselves and others.