I Radio Heaven

A couple weeks ago, I heard a statistic that grabbed my attention and hasn’t let it go.  I’ve been turning it about in my head but I can’t seem to shake it.  I read somewhere that 10 billion dollars would end world poverty.  Now, i have zero knowledge about world economics, and that figure seems frightfully low.  However, our country is spending $3 trillion (which we don’t have, but that’s another story) to bring death and destruction to the Middle East.  that’s $3,000,000,000,000.  In other words, and if that first number is anywhere close to correct, that’s enough to save this and 299 other Planet Earths.

Today at church, we had a special guest up from Arizona.  His name is Austin, and he’s the 14 year old founder of Hoops Of Hope.  It’s an organization that raises money for AIDS orphans in Africa.  Last year, they raised over $200,000 to build a medical testing center in Zambia.  (did i mention that, at the time, that kid was 13?)

Now, i’m not going to whine about how old I am or how little I’ve done with my life.  What I am going to to is take inspiration from what one person can do (as well as receive the gentle prodding from our home group’s study of James).   What I’d like to do is to begin something like an awareness campaign.  There’s a statistic floating around the Christian world about how much money the USAmerican church at large would have if attendees tithed their 10%.  I don’t have it, but I’m going to dig around and find it.  What I’m sure of is that it’s a big, big number.  The second thing I’m sure of is that 10% of that figure will also be a big, big number.  I’m not planning on starting a new organization or collecting money personally; there are plenty of clever, numerically-named and very worthy ones out there (for example: here,  here, here, here, here, and here).  The goal is, as you would expect, $10 billion.  It’s an absurd amount, especially for someone that can barely pay his mobile phone bill on time (though that’s due mostly to my being an airhead).  Plus, like i said, I don’t want your money, so i truly won’t know how much is happening.  What I simply want is for churchgoers to start to believe the words of James 1:27, “Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress,” and to give to their local communities.  If those communities in turn give 10% in a missional way, i truly believe that we could see something amazing.

This is absolutely me going off half-cocked on some wild scheme, but I’m doing it in public to keep myself accountable.  However, if any of you have any thoughts or, better yet, any slightly more accurate numbers than the ones i threw out there, by all means pass it along.