Why?

WHY does God allow suffering?
WHY doesn’t God help the poor?
WHY doesn’t God stop poverty?

Being a Christian, one of the hardest things for me was when people would ask, “If God exists, why would he allow suffering in the world?” My answer would always be somewhere along the lines of, “some things we don’t know all the answers to and we just have to accept it,” but that didn’t help. I try to avoid this questions as much as possible because sometimes, it makes me doubt things that my God can do.

This morning I was flicking through TV channels to find that the movie Bruce Almighty was on. It was half way through but I decided to watch anyways. After listening to a quote from Morgan Freeman whom played God in the film, a lightbulb in my head was quickly lit.

In the movie Bruce (Jim Carey) is given Gods (Morgan Freeman) powers for a while. He uses the powers on silly things like parting his soup in one scene and trying to get a job as an anchor man by destroying other peoples careers. Later in the movie a riot breaks lose and it ends up being chaotic. Bruce realizes he can’t stop it and so he goes to God for advice.
This is what God says:

Parting your soup is not a miracle Bruce, it’s a magic trick. A single mom who’s working two jobs and still finds time to take her son to soccer practice, that’s a miracle. A teenager who says “No” to drugs and “Yes” to education, that’s a miracle. People want me to do everything for them. What they don’t realize is that THEY have the power. You want to see a miracle, son? Be the miracle!

So, with all respect, stop asking God to feed the hungry, start doing it yourselves. If we stopped being lazy and went out and helped the poor and did something about the amount of people dying from starvation or all the bad things happening in our world, we wouldn’t have to keep asking God. There are over 7 billion people in this world. 22 000 children die each day from poverty around the world. So if ALL of us, and I mean all of us, around the world, gave food to a starving child every day, would we solve children dying of starvation? YES.
More than 3 billion people live on less than $2.50 (R24.74) a day and 1.3 billion of those people live on less than $1.25 (R12.37) a day, that leaves us with 4 billion people who can give these people food and provide for them.
Preventable diseases like diarrhea and pneumonia take the lives of 2 million children a year who are too poor to afford proper treatment, I’d like to ask all doctors whom are fairly wealthy, WHY won’t you save a child’s life? You have the power to do so, you’re more then capable, so WHY? working in a hospital where they have machines to keep people alive and all the right treatment, I honor you for that, but isn’t working in a place where there are way more people dying and in need of your knowledge in health and your ability to heal them more rewarding, knowing that you’re saving the lives of 2 million children? We have enough doctors in the hospitals located in wealthy areas, we don’t need you as much as those 2 million dying children.
More than 867 million people are illiterate in the world, to my understanding there are many people studying to become teachers, why not teach the illiterate. The schools around you probably have way more teachers than they need, but the schools where illiteracy is high are struggling, those are the places you should be drawn towards. Imagine being able to do what you love (teaching) AND being able to make people’s futures much brighter, does that idea not excite you?

And for people like me, who are still in school/university and don’t exactly have the money to help these people or the skills as such, lets make an effort to spread the word and let everyone (who has the resources) know how they can help. I know from experience that spending time with these people, people in shelters who can’t afford a home, or people who have to sleep on the streets, children in townships where school isn’t an option because they’re busy taking care of their family, or a child in an orphanage whom has never had someone hug them or speak to them with love, is so worth it because these people treasure every moment you spend with them, every word of theirs you listen to, every trouble of theirs you care about and every pain of theirs you pray for. So for people my age, your times more than enough. If you don’t have time, spread the word, do what I’m doing, as much as you may think it won’t make a difference, it will.

Stop asking God to do everything and realize he gave you your gift for a reason.
We all have different gifts to be put together in order to stop what’s happening in terms of poverty in our world, I may not have mentioned yours in this blog post but it can most definitely still be used in ending poverty. Yes I’m dreaming big, but if more of us started to dream big, maybe we could change things.

Stop asking God WHY and starting asking yourself WHY.
WHY haven’t YOU stopped suffering in this world?
WHY don’t YOU help the poor?
WHY don’t YOU stop poverty?

You want to see a miracle, son? BE THE MIRACLE!