Is the world of poverty really our responsibility? We are not the tyrants who abuse children in
sweatshops, we are not the pimps who run brothels; we have no direct power on a
governmental level, and yet, as Christians, we cannot just sit back and watch the death,
starvation and exploitation continue.
We have governments and global institutions that are responsible for looking after the organisation of our
own countries and managing international issues. Such organisations are vital but our over reliance on
them can result in our conviction that anything which we do not personally control is someone else’s job. We
can abdicate responsibility to the point at which we render ourselves useless in changing anything, and in
doing so we fail to see the power of Christ within us.
Whether we like to admit it or not we are all players in the global world. The food we eat, the clothes
we wear and the cars we drive are all products from a number of different countries. We are not self-
suffi cient and cannot exist in isolation. God created us to draw from each other’s individual gifts and
skills, and through community with each other fi nd Him. This interdependence comes with both reward and
responsibility.
Our individual position within this world is often diffi cult to fathom when poverty is presented to us on such
a large scale. The abundance of fi gures can leave us rather cold; victims of “compassion fatigue”
and voyeurs of a problem which is far too large for us to ever do anything about.
This is not a healthy way to view our world. When we reduce
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