![\"Lilac](\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/362\/2014\/09\/LilacFestival_watermark_SteveHenderson.jpg\")
<\/a>In other words, why doesn’t God DO something?<\/p>\n
It’s a reasonable question, one that has baffled us through the ages, but before we get too caught up in it, we might also ask,<\/p>\n
“Well, why don’t we?”<\/p>\n
Cutting off the Crusts<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n People starve in this world not necessarily\u00a0because we don’t produce enough food — check out restaurant, school, government, and individual garbage bins in the country in which I live, for example. At the sub shop where I occasionally treat myself to a sandwich, I’m always fascinated that three inches of each end are sawn off and thrown into the\u00a0trash.<\/p>\n “Can’t you send some of that to a shelter that feeds people?” I ask.<\/p>\n “Unfortunately, no. Government regulations forbid it for sanitation reasons.”<\/p>\n Well, there’s something we could do. We could find out who passes these laws and see if we could get them overturned. Bureaucracy being what it is, however, I’m not any more hopeful about that option than you are.<\/p>\n Bureaucracy<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n Speaking of bureaucracy, consider all the\u00a0money\u00a0that people\u00a0send\u00a0to relief organizations — to purchase food and clean water for those who don’t have it — \u00a0and think about how many times\u00a0we\u00a0hear\u00a0that a shipment\u00a0is\u00a0“held up” (and thereby\u00a0rots\u00a0or\u00a0is\u00a0destroyed before it\u00a0gets\u00a0to the people needing it) by a government agency or red herring hostile force within the country. Logically, the best thing God could “Do” in this situation is get rid of the impeding bureaucratic agency, but once He started, there would be very little left standing, worldwide,\u00a0by\u00a04:30 p.m. closing time at\u00a0end of the day.<\/p>\n A friend of mine in a poor, struggling country — the kind that is filled with\u00a0a plethora of\u00a0relief agencies, both religious and secular — mentioned how a fellow United Statesian had been sent to work at a large, mega-Christian charity in a big city nearby. When she tried to contact the new employee to see if the agency could link hands with her small, individual efforts to help people, the woman told her,<\/p>\n “Oh, I have a desk job. I basically just shuffle papers around.”<\/p>\n Is there any reason why the\u00a0mega-ministry\u00a0couldn’t have hired a person from\u00a0the agency-invaded\u00a0country to “just shuffle papers around” as opposed to\u00a0importing\u00a0an entry level worker\u00a0from 8,000 miles away? That’s something that humans, and not God, could do toward solving\u00a0the country’s problem of unemployment. The amount invested in each imported entry level worker could raise an entire local family, one with no hope, to a level of dignity and security.<\/p>\n The Elite<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n At base, our world suffers because a small number of people at the top — well hidden but with their hands in the financial affairs of men — simply cannot get enough money, enough power, enough land, enough flesh from other human beings. They run banks, government agencies, educational establishments, medicine, pharmaceuticals, agri-business, media, and religious organizations — their surfeit is our lack, but one reason they make so much is that we continue to give it to them.<\/p>\n While there’s little we can do, short-term, about taxes, fees, and mandatory insurance payments, when we fund large corporations by buying, and buying, and buying things we don’t necessarily need but want, or when we purchase on credit and make interest payments — where do you think all that money goes? It goes\u00a0to\u00a0banks, and to corporations so large that they own more real estate and resources than actual nations.<\/p>\n In our purchases, we can make three little decisions that, individually, don’t seem like much, but collectively,\u00a0can help\u00a0starve\u00a0this beast:<\/p>\n 1) Don’t buy on credit<\/p>\n 2) Don’t buy buy buy<\/p>\n 3) When we do buy, seek out true small businesses — Mom and Pop’s\u00a0farmer’s market\u00a0stand, an artist’s fine art paintings<\/a>, an eclectic toy shop that isn’t part of a chain — and support individuals, not oligarchies. On that same note, we might check out smaller charities, run by human beings not boards, and consider sending our money there. It\u00a0may\u00a0actually get to the people we’re trying to help.<\/p>\n “Yeah, I don’t need a larger screen TV, but I want it — so leave me alone!”<\/em><\/p>\n One at a Time, We Make a Difference<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n But if we\u00a0can’t do this little thing — say “no” to a stream of nonessential purchases and keep that dollar or two or twenty or fifty off the books of big, big business,\u00a0then why do we get so mad at God, accusing Him of doing nothing?<\/p>\n Imagine\u00a0what would happen\u00a0if every person who has ever asked, “Why doesn’t God DO something,” made\u00a0just one\u00a0decision today to not\u00a0fund the fiscal consortium\u00a0— didn’t use a credit card, or didn’t incur an ATM transaction fee, or didn’t buy a movie ticket, or didn’t take out a loan. Individually, the impact would be small, but collectively,\u00a0the global corporate oligopoly\u00a0feeds off of our nickels and dimes and pennies — because that’s what we are to them — not individual human beings, but monetary units.<\/p>\n The global oligarchy — our New World Order —\u00a0\u00a0needs a lot of small, consistent, regular contributions from these monetary units (that’s you and me) to stay strong, powerful, and well fed — this last aspect being what too many individual people in this world, are not.<\/p>\n Buy wisely. Buy well. Buy locally or from true small businesses. And give to places\u00a0that\u00a0don’t hire entry level workers from 8,000 miles away. Maybe these are options God wants us to look into.<\/p>\n Thank You<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n Thank you for joining me at Commonsense Christianity, where, as an ordinary person, I do not have millions of dollars to pour into programs that purport to help, but tend to just feed the programs. But I can make a decision with each hard earned dollar I spend or give, and I do my best to do so.<\/p>\n Posts similar to this one are<\/p>\n Should You Question Authority?<\/a><\/p>\n![\"Field](\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/362\/2014\/09\/FieldOfDreams_watermark_SteveHenderson.jpg\")
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