Even as small as I am, I am technically obese. I have to watch my weight fairly closely or I will catch myself gaining too much weight. My struggle is not as bad as many, but it is enough to understand that weight loss is hard to do and in modern America gaining weight is easy to do. Unfortunately, weight issues to the extent that we have in America is a first world problem.
In his book titled “Too Small to Ignore”, Wess Stafford asked the question: “So why is a third of our world battling obesity and spending huge sums to burn off excess calories, while the other two-thirds yearn to get more of them?”
Our culture is a culture of excess and entitlement. We have excess and many times we believe that we are entitled to more. I am often amazed about the amount of stuff that we have around my own house. There are times when we move that we take several truckloads of used materials to Goodwill. The year we left El Paso, we held a yard sale. The night before, a man showed up at our door looking for clothes for his baby daughter. The man was clearly from Juarez and his need touched our hearts in a great way. When we loaded the truck, we were getting rid of our old mattress and had arranged for someone to take it away. Before we could, one of the workers had a family member from Juarez who needed a mattress to sleep on. We were, once again, touched by the need of those around us.
While the people of Juarez can sometimes cross the border and find someone’s used belongings, the rest of the world is not that fortunate. As we grow through our lives, I pray that we will always consider ways to help those in poverty.
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