World's Apart
Written Saturday, August 09, 2008
12:13 PM
Today, creativity preceded our Saturday checklist at the Stromwall residence. Soft melodies of a saxophone and a piano drifted into the haze of sunshine through our window as we casually dabbled with our musical passions in our pajamas. Suddenly, ideas flooded our humble abode on Huron Blvd, which actually, in comparison to most of the world, is like a mansion filled with amazing amenities most do not have access to- running water, a fully supplied kitchen, cupboards with food, a couch, computers, a great piano to play… let me backtrack. It is not a humble abode at all when looking through a global lens. Its actually quite luxurious, even though it is considered the least expensive place to live near the University of Minnesota. So… am I rich or poor? In a matter of 30 seconds, each literate person with access to the internet could have their definitions of wealth and poverty completely redefined by one click on links to websites such as: http://www.globalrichlist.com, http://www.globalissues.org, and http://www.tanzanialifeproject.org.
Don’t worry, I’m not just going to propose a challenge without taking the plunge myself myself. Thirty seconds ago, I thought I was one of those young, “just starting off” college grads who just upgraded old silverware for some nice new silverware. After 30 seconds of clicking, I have been whacked over the head with what feels like a large baseball bat. I think I actually felt my brain jiggle after I visited http://www.globalrichlist.com/ and learned that in college, I lived among the top 13% of the richest people in the world. That means I was richer than 87% of the world. Holy Smokes! Let me get specific. I worked as a nanny and a waitress for one year of college. Combined, I made near $10,000 in a year from those jobs. This puts me in the top 13.31% of the richest people in the world, economically speaking. Let me give you a visual (which you could see too in about 30 seconds)…
HOW RICH ARE YOU?
Every year we gaze enviously at the lists of the richest people in world.
Wondering what it would be like to have that sort of cash. But where
would you sit on one of those lists? Here’s your chance to find out.
Just enter your annual income into the box below and hit ‘show me the money’
MY ANNUAL INCOME = $10,000
You are the 798,928,823 richest person in the world! You’re in the TOP 13.31% richest people in the world!
Pasted from http://www.globalrichlist.com/
Then, school got harder, so I lived largely off of loans and didn’t make quite as much, but so go the flows of economic infrastructure. Surely, now that I’m a grad only a few courses away from my masters degree, I have access to live among even the top 5% of the world. My first response to this was to look at my husband, Nick, sitting across from me at Caribou and say, in a rather shreakish voice, “Oh my gosh! This is unbelievable! How are we suppose to live our life?” It seems standards of living are largely determined by what one naturally has access to depending upon where they live and educational experience. To float somewhere with the rest of the world would probably mean that our overall “quality of life” would have to look different than it does. But does that mean we should start living at a lesser quality of life? Or, as Americans, should we just live the quality of life available? I guess I struggle because there are a lot of Americans who don’t have access to the kind of quality of life available to a lot of college educated people. I’m not going to go crazy and sell everything I have and stop buying the necessities in life… but is it ok to investigate the gap of poverty in the world and to consider that some “qualities of life” may actually lessen the quality of life for someone else somewhere in the world? Thinking random thoughts… like the fact that I didn’t create my own life… God did. So… could I open my eyes to a broader perspective? To the fact that he created a lot more lives and ways of life than mine?
(Jars of Clay Lyrics to the song “World’s Apart” begin to sing in the back of my mind)
/All said and done I stand alone
Amongst remains of a life I should not own
It takes all I am to believe
In the mercy that covers me
Did you really have to die for me?
All I am for all you are
Because what I need and what I believe are worlds apart/
I am such a sucker for comfort and pleasure, that to think of someone or something taking any of my personal comforts away from me would seem disasterous. When in reality- much of the world lives without of the bottles that make up my beauty and cleanliness. I don’t like the idea of not having these convenient bottles. My loving and ambitious husband, Nick, spoke to me gently about the idea of Campus Outreach, a college ministry, expanding to India, one of the most overpopulated and impoverished countries in the world.
I don’t want to take risks. Most days, I wouldn’t naturally volunteer to go somewhere that may not have this quality of life available for me. I don’t want to live uncomfortably. I am not ashamed to admit this because, at least, it displays my utter need for a savior, my utter need to be forgiven of frequent, protruding self-seeking and self-pleasing motives. I think I would have a lot more peace if I could care much less about comfort in such a temporary life.
So I’ve just nearly cracked open the lid of the jar of fears I have, one being that I will contribute to the gap of poverty in the world by living by the standard of living that most college educated, white people have available to them. Yet, my desires are so torn. I want to live the standard of life available to me. There is a part of me that knows its not gauranteed and that I just might be ok if I had to live without some of the amenities I live with today.
Somehow, through the jumble of typing, I am realizing that I must keep my hands open to whatever circumstances God might bring me through… weather I am brought high or brought low. I am comforted by the fact that I’m not the savior of the world and God does not call me to fix all of its problems. I wonder how I would handle if my world of comfort and pleasure were to be taken apart sometime. I am clinging to the belief that through harder times, we get to know Jesus for what he really is: all that we really have.
(“World’s Apart”)
/I look beyond the empty cross
forgetting what my life has cost
and wipe away the crimson stains
“dull the nails that still remain”
More and more I need you now,
I owe you more each passing hour
the battle between grace and pride
I gave up not so long ago
So steal my heart and take the pain
and wash the feet and cleanse my pride
To love you – take my world apart
To need you – I am on my knees
To love you – take my world apart
To need you – broken on my knees/
