"Lord, let my heart be broken by the things that break Your heart - that I may not forget to serve those who suffer."

That is the theme of the best book I have read this quarter.

"The Hole in Our Gospel" by Richard Stearns

Stearns is the CEO of World Vision, and this book is the chronicle of his journey, to his position, but mostly to his views that things need to change. And it needs to start with US. His premise at the beginning is "God expects our lives to be characterized by these authentic signs of our own transformations: compassion, mercy, justice, and love - demonstrated tangibly." (p 57) He says "There is no "whole gospel" without compassion and justice shown to the poor. It's that simple." (p 60) And yet, we are failing. Everywhere you look, people are serving their jobs, material assets, and money before God. "For many people a career becomes the altar on which they sacrifice their lives." (p 93)

There are so many truths in this book, that I cannot provide an adequate review. So, I am going to highlight my favorite quotes, in hope that they inspire further reading.

"Why did God make me? To love, serve and obey Him. Very simple, yet extremely profound. If we all woke up every morning asking,"How can I love, serve and obey God today?" it might change everything - it might even change the world." (p 94)

"Our desire is not that others might be relieved while you are hard pressed, but that there might be equality." -2 Corinthians 8:13 (p 97)

"The growing gap between the richest and poorest people on earth is the greatest problem of our time" - President Jimmy Carter (p 98)

"The programs, tools, and technologies to virtually eliminate the most extreme kinds of poverty and suffering in our world are now available. This is truly good news for the poor - or is it? Not really, because we are not doing our part." (p 104)

"Imagine what would happen in your lives if there was no connection between how hard you worked and the results you got - because that is exactly the situation faced by more than one billion people who live on less than a dollar a day." For most of the poorest people in the world, their hard work doesn't matter. They are trapped within social, cultural, political and economic systems that do not reward their labor. They cannot escape the trap, and lose the one thing every person needs to thrive - hope. (p 119)

" These precious human beings created in God's image have been left behind and cast on the garbage dump of history by circumstances they cannot change. We must never say it is their fault. How dare we?" (p 120)

"The avearge income in America is $38,611 per person or about $105 per day, compared to almost half the people on earth who live on less than $2 a day" (p 121)

"If your job produces a decent income for you, do not spend it all on yourself. make some of it available to the poor and less fortunate, that they too, might live a decent life." (p 123 - modern day version of Lev 23:22)

"One of the highest and best ways of expressing our love for God is by demonstrating His love tangibly to those around us." (p 185)

These quotes seem to sum up the book for me. The end chapters discuss the hole - how people profess to be good, God-loving people and yet do nothing to help. Christianity has taken a beating with the perception that Christians are judgemental, hypocritical, old-fashioned, too involved with politics ( I have a GREAT one for this ) out of touch with reality, insenstive to others, boring, antihomosexual, not accepting of other faiths and confusing. (p 230)

The bottom line, is we need to walk the walk. So many people need help! It is our responsibility as affluent Americans and frankly - I think - more important than anything else in the world. Including all the modern views on schooling, money, consumerism, etc. (THIS to come in my review of my other favorite book this quarter!)

This book was definitely more "Christian" than a Catholic like me usually reads. We just aren't used to books with Bible quotes and such. :) But it was very positive, did not bash any religions and did not try to "save" me. A friend told me about it, and then decided to run a discussion group over 4 weeks. It was great to meet and discuss these important matters with like-minded people.

It has inspired me to do even more things like our fair trade fair, global awareness girl scout day and all my other myriad of causes. I also hope to get another JustFaith group going at church.

"A small group of thoughtful people could change the world. Indeed, it's the only thing that ever has." - Margaret Mead