I own nothing...

Gerard Thomas Straub was the speaker at Calvin's "January Series" today. After leaving a glamorous life in Hollywood, he makes films about people living in poverty around the world. He claims that after years of being an aetheist, he had an encounter with God, and his life was forever changed. He was convicted of his materialistic and self-centered lifestyle, and his new mission in life was to expose the plight of the poor.

Poverty alleviation is something I am passionate about, so I was interested to hear what he had to say when I heard what he would be speaking about. He opened his lecture with clips from some of the films he has made, then talked about his life for about half an hour, and finally closed his time with more of his clips. While watching his films and the images of poverty he managed to capture I was moved. My initial reaction to the clips was anger--I was angered by the injustice I was witnessing. My response was emotional in nature, and I felt like there was something I was supposed to do, but I wasn't sure what.

After talking with friends about their reactions and crtiques of the lecture, my reaction changed. Some of my friends felt that the films were de-humanizing in nature by only showing one aspect of the lives of the poor--their material deprivation. Others felt that the film was meant to evoke an emotional response, a strategy that is in dangerous territory.

This evening, there was a full length showing of one of Dr. Straub's films. My reaction after watching this film was much different. I felt that the film was flawed in many ways, but still managed to be effective in raising awareness of the issues surrounding injustice and the resulting poverty. My response to the film was that it did a good enough job accomplishing the task it sought to accomplish, but that since I was already aware of many of the issues it raised, the film was not intended to speak to me on a personal level.

Then I went home. My friends and I were excited to discuss the film we viewed tonight at length, and so we did just that. We then hung out for a while before calling it a night and heading to bed around 1am.

So now it's almost 5am, and I have not gotten a wink of sleep. I laid in bed for nearly three hours before deciding that my efforts to fall asleep were futile, and I should do something productive (this is the first time I've ever given up on sleep in my life). Once out of bed, I was moved to pull out my Bible, thinking I'd try reading to help me fall asleep. The book of Amos seemed especially relevant tonight, and since I had never read through the whole book before, I decided I'd start at chapter one and see how far I got.

Nine chapters later, I was into Obadiah. I was moved by Amos' words, because I find them so relevant today. When I was reading, I found myself identifying with the powers that be that Amos so viciously criticized. After viewing so much abject poverty from around the world tonight, I couldn't help but feel like Amos' critique of the wealthy, priveleged, and powerful was directed at me. At first while I was reading, I was replacing "Israel" with "America," but I was sure to distance myself from the America that I was picturing.

When I got to the end of the book, I couldn't believe my eyes, and I read this passage multiple times over:

"Men will stagger from sea to sea and wander from north to east, searching for the word of the Lord, but they will not find it. In that day the lovely young women and strong young men will faint because of thirst. They who swear by the shame of Samaria, or say, 'As surely as your god lives, O Dan,'...they will fall, never to rise again."

I couldn't believe that my name was right there on the page. It stunned me. Talk about bringing something close to home.

So I finished Amos and just tried to dwell in what I had just read. As I was brooding, I was struck by the fact that everything truly does come from God. Absolutely everything we have. It was very convicting in light of the poverty I had witnessed earlier in the night and made me think of how I could best use what I have to further the kingdom of God.

There is now no doubt in my mind that God demands absolutely everything of us if we are to live a life that is pleasing to Him.