Priorities

What things are you buying while people around the world are dying?
A couple of days ago I was on my way driving to Sydney just thinking about cars (as I’m looking for one currently), and at one point I looked around at all the cars around me, and it was interesting to observe that the cars I could immediately see would all have been worth about 15 grand or more (some a lot more), and of those cars virtually all of them would cost a lot to run and maintain. And in that moment of looking around at these cars I couldn’t help but feel a slight sense of despair and inequity. Now I’m not suggesting that these people that owned these cars didn’t deserve them. Infact they’ve probably worked very hard to acquire them. But it made me think about priorities. In that moment I wondered how many of them donate to aid organizations that assist people to survive each week. So many people overseas are contracting HIV aids, catching malaria, are malnourished, and commonly die from these preventable diseases. And all of this not because they are lazy. Infact a lot of people in these situations work much harder and endure many more hardships than we do. These people struggle to survive each week, let alone think about getting an education. And a lot of the things such as HIV aids, malaria, and malnourishment are easily prevented or cured. And it would only take a little bit to help people in these situations. Yet we live in a materialistic world. Were too interested in the new i-pad, or the better car we can get, or the video games we can play, or whatever it is that you like or want.
And by no means am I saying that people with these things should be condemned right now. Everyone would be in the wrong if this were the case. But if you’re not doing anything for the cause of the needy and less fortunate people in society (or ones overseas) than I believe you should feel convicted right now. Where is your sense of morality?? Where is society’s sense of morality?
It’s easy for us to see pictures of orphans overseas and be upset for them. It’s so easy for us to sympathize with the horrific living conditions many people are forced to live in (just go to the slums in India and the Philippines), whilst we sit down in our air conditioned comfortable homes to a meal that would be 3 days worth of food for them.
And once again, I’m not trying to condemn everyone that has a comfortable house or these kinds of luxuries. But are you helping those people that can’t help themselves?
In the bible in Ecclesiastes Ch 2:10-11 Solomon says ‘I denied myself nothing my eyes desired; I refused my heart no pleasure. My heart took delight in all my work, and this was the reward for all my labor. Yet when I surveyed all that my hands had done and what I had toiled to achieve, everything was meaningless, a chasing after the wind: nothing was gained under the sun’.
What this is telling us, and rightly so is that whatever wealth or whatever possessions you acquire for yourself is all for nothing in the end. Once you pass away, the money you gained or the wealth you built means nothing. Material possessions will eventually rot away, so the man who goes around his whole life trying to acquire material possessions lives a meaningless life. Solomon calls it ‘chasing after the wind’ because it’s a pointless act.
It’s too easy for us to see those that need help, and then go and buy the latest gadget without a thought. Morality is proven by action! It’s easy to sympathize with the needy, but it means nothing if action isn’t taken. Re-evaluate your priorities and consider whether you should be doing more to help those genuinely in need. This will give you a reward far greater than any material possession.