“From ignorance to compassion” –More or Less: Choosing a Lifestyle of Excessive Generosity by Jeff Shinabarger
I have more than enough food.
For months I’ve had anxiety over food and groceries, like I don’t have “enough”. I don’t have the same amount in my fridge or cupboard that I was so used to all growing up. I’ve worried about how I’m going to buy groceries for the coming week or where my next meal will come from.
But then I look in my pantry and see oatmeal, instant mashed potatoes, granola bars, tortillas, and some sort of boxed pasta. This is still more than millions of people all over the world have. A large majority of the earths population don’t know what, when, or how they’ll get their next meal- for both themselves and their child(ren). So I have more than enough food.
I am blessed.
Solidarity– “to suffer with”.
In an effort to empathize with the “936 million people who do not have enough to eat” (http://www.statisticbrain.com/world-hunger-statistics/), I am committing the next 14 days to eating only 1 small bowl of beans and rice a day.
I’m not asking for your opinion, applaud, or sympathy in my decision, but your accountability and prayers would be appreciated.
In less than 80 days I will embark on a life-changing journey around the globe in order to share God’s love, bring restoration and hope to a dying people, and serve those in need. I will personally encounter women stuck in prostitution, children living without parents, men and women dying of HIV/AIDS, and people of all ages living in poverty without a home, clean water, or enough to eat.
It’s one thing to hear the statistics.
It’s one thing to see pictures.
It’s one thing to see it in person.
It’s another thing to suffer and experience yourself.
I can’t change the whole world, but I can do something to empathize with those in need in order to challenge, change, and move me to action in other ways.
Here are my Boundaries:
1. Eat one bowl of beans and rice for 14 days.
2. Buy no other food or groceries.
3. Eat only in addition what others offer freely.
4. At the end of the 14 days, spend $60 grocery money on someone else’s food.
“I’ve been impressed with the urgency of doing. Knowing is not enough, we must apply. Being willing is not enough, we must do.” – Leonardo da Vinci
