A Diamond in the Rough

Has anyone ever shared a lunch for one between two or three people? How is it that when all parties are hungry and the portion is small that so often bellies are satisfied? Sharing what belongs to one can so often somehow satisfy. It is incredible when I think of all the times this has happened with me. It seems that in a world so consumed by greed that when one gives up their own for the benefit of all that satisfaction previously unlikely comes around.

Maybe it's God's way of encouraging us to share what we have in Faith that he'll provide. Jesus fed 5000 on a few loaves and two fish. Talk about God providing.

My life over the past two-three years has been filled with instances of God providing. Somehow on a base income ranging between $400 and $550/month in the last 3 years I've been able to do a DTS and SOMD in Los Angeles which included outreach to Mississippi and Morocco. A summer outreach to LA and Mexico, lead a DTS in Toronto with outreach to Germany and Turkey, fly to and from Vancouver and Barbados for training and have food, shelter and the necessities. Unlikely yes, but God has been my provision through a beautiful array of generous supporters.

Anyway all of this to say that I found an amazing quote about greed in a very strange place. This is Captain Barbosa on Pirates of the Caribbean Dead Curse of the Black Pearl explaining the curse he and his crew suffered under:

Find it, we did (treasure). There be the chest. Inside be the gold(coins). And we took ‘em all. We spent ‘em and traded ‘em and frittered ‘em away on drink and food and pleasurable company. The more we gave ‘em away, the more we came to realize…the drink would not satisfy, food turned to ash in our mouths, and all the pleasurable company in the world could not slake our lust. We are cursed men, Miss Turner . Compelled by greed, we were, but now we are consumed by it. There is one way we can end our curse.

This is so profound to me! How could this be found in a Disney movie!!??

This is the current greed and coming downfall of North America explained. The current generations in North America almost all found themselves born into significantly more wealth then most the rest of the world. This treasure of a society our forefathers built for us has been an amazing treasure that was built up over many generations. Now what we are doing with it is what the pirates had done with theirs.

"We spent ‘em and traded ‘em and frittered ‘em away on drink and food and pleasurable company."

What are we doing with wealth other then greedily frittering it away? So what some might say, but here is the kicker.

"The more we gave ‘em away, the more we came to realize…the drink would not satisfy, food turned to ash in our mouths, and all the pleasurable company in the world could not slake our lust."

This explains so much about current North America to me. The various addictions including but not limited to materialism (addicted to shopping?), alcohol and drugs (duh), food addictions (non medically caused obesity) and sexual addictions (pornography).

Where the satisfaction we once received from something fades what is the most common human reaction? Get more. Drink more. Eat more. View more?

North America here is the truth of our struggle:

!!We are cursed men and women. Compelled by greed we were but now we are consumed by it.!!

How do we break the curse?

Breaking the curse we are under is far more complicated then breaking the one Barbosa's crew was under. There are so many more variables, so much more at steak that we should care about that those Pirates didn't. We've got to start somewhere though. I believe many people have experimented towards a breaking this curse. Community living, boycotting blood diamonds, sweatshop clothing, unfair coffee trade and various attempts at living modestly are all excellent baby steps in the fight to break the curse of greed.

Personally I have wished to make many of these steps myself without actually getting to where I want to be. Sadly I cannot afford fair trade clothing or food all the time. I do live in community, but I live very modestly (sub modestly) not by choice but out of necessity. To be honest a major contributor to this nasty burnout cycle I go through is just scraping by all the time.

The major concept that catches my eye out of all these is modest living though. Imagine if all the world's millionaires all gave their yearly income that surpasses one million away to those who truly need?

In the Forbes 2006 study of the 400 richest Americans there was no one on the list below 1 Billion dollars. If one person whose value was one Billion dollars kept one million for themselves and gave the rest away to the poorest of the poor in increments of ten thousand dollars then they could give $10 000.00 to 99 900 people. If all the 400 richest Americans all only had 1 Billion and did the same they could give $10 000.00 to 39 960 000 people which is slightly more then 10% of the current estimates of US population (US Pop Clock).

Crazy eh? I don't believe in the trickle down effect. The trickle up effect needs to be put into action. The poor need to be supported not the rich. YOU can be a part of this change! Refuse to support greedy politics, refuse to succumb to greed yourself and if you find yourself a crazy billionaire in the future start the trend. Live modest and guilt free.

Hey guilt free: Sharing and community is what God originally designed us for. Maybe if a rich person shares extensive amounts of their wealth they might edge closer to finding that happiness that money can't buy...