Less for Us, More for Them
After two hours of hiking to a village in the middle of the jungle, we are swarmed by excited children ready to play soccer for hours in the sweltering heat. After soccer, songs and a bible lesson we’re all exhausted and ready to eat lunch before beginning the long journey back home. Our leader Jim pulls out a couple bags of popcorn and some bananas. That’s it? That’s lunch? Everyone’s faces drop a little bit. As we sit down to enjoy our small lunch rations the children reappear from seemingly nowhere and ask if we’re going to share. A girl on my team looks at Jim, and her hunger beats out her manners as she quietly asks “Umm... Jim? We aren’t going to give them any are we?” He just smiles and calmly replies, “It’s less for us, but it’s more for them.”
That short phrase has changed my perspective on many things over the last year. It comes to mind multiple times throughout the week as I go about daily life.
Every time I acknowledge my homeless brother on the street and buy him a sandwich or cup of coffee.
Every time I pass on a latte so I can afford my monthly payment to sponsor a child.
Every time I have to remind myself that I don’t need more new clothes when my closet is full and there are people without bare necessities.
Every time I spend a few extra dollars on fair trade chocolate because I care that most chocolate corporations use cocoa harvested by child slave labor.
It’s less for me, but it’s more for them.
What’s interesting is that the thing we choose to give up so that others might have more usually doesn’t cost us that much. We often use the excuse of “I can’t afford it.” But if we’re honest, we usually can. What we really can’t afford is to lose more children to the cycle of poverty and injustice when there are very simple ways to help.
Think of the small boy who gives his lunch in John 6. He didn’t have much, but he gave what he had and Jesus fed 5,000 people with leftovers to spare.
The day that we shared our popcorn lunch with those children, no one went hungry. As it turned out, we had popcorn leftover to send home with them. We shared something small and simple, but when you give of what you have God can do big things.
As Americans we live in the land of More. We always want what’s biggest or newest or shiniest. This next month I am choosing to live in the land of Less, and I challenge you to do the same. Choose a 12 oz latte instead of 24 oz. Buy something used instead of new. Use that money saved to impact a life in poverty. And choose to share. Share your lunch with someone in need. Take some extra clothes down to the shelter.
It’s less for us, but it’s more for them.
