Poverty: Gaining Perspective Part 1
When was the last time you were
confronted by poverty and what did you do about it?
I heard a
remarkable story of a life changing moment for Bill Hybels who was a guest
speaker at this weekend’s gala that we attended. It was hosted by one of the
charitable foundations we support as a company. Bill took his dad's advice and
decided to travel around the world before undertaking a promising career as a
commodities’ trader in Chicago.
Back then he
wasn’t sure why, but he made his first stop in Nairobi, Kenya where he saw the
face of poverty unlike any other. The sight of a small boy with leprosy (a
disease he long thought had been wiped away), begging for loose change so
startled him that he got scared and ran back to his hotel. He spent the next
few days in his room agonizing about what he had just seen and for the first
time asking God to use his life to address what he had just seen.
Bill would
say that was the day everything changed for him. He gave up his promising
career and family business and begun working with local communities eventually
becoming a Youth Pastor. Today he is the founder and senior pastor of Willow
Creek Community Church in Chicago, one of the most well attended churches in
North America. Through his ministries, he has been able to do much more about
what he saw that day. He is one of the leading voices on fighting poverty in
his local city and around the world.
Not all of
us will have the kind of jolt or impact that Pastor Hybels has had, but all of
us can (if we chose to) have some impact. But Let’s not kid ourselves, facing
poverty is hard. It forces us to look at our own lives in relation to what we
are seeing. Personally, I always have a sense of being overwhelmed and
conflicted about where to start. Thus it becomes easier not to talk about it or
be in close proximity to it. The results are devastating when those who are
capable of doing something chose to ignore it or step away from it.
The Ovarian Lottery
For whatever it’s worth here’s some
perspective: When it comes to poverty, it matters where you are born, what time
period you are born and in what family or community you are born into. All of
which we have no control over. Warren Buffett calls this the ovarian lottery. He is quick to point
out that had he been born a few hundred years earlier, all of his skills in
financial markets wouldn’t have mattered. He would have been some animal’s
lunch since he can’t run to save his life.
He asks us
to imagine that it’s 24 hours before birth and you have to pick one ball from 7
billion (the number of people alive today). “That
ball will determine your gender, race, nationality, natural abilities, and
health” — whether you are born rich or poor, sick or able-bodied, brilliant
or below average, American or North Korean. Here’s the question he ends up
asking “Would you put the ball back and
try and pick another one?”
If you
answer NO based on the above
then what you are saying is “I’m the luckiest 1% of the world right now”
Understanding
as Mr. Buffett has, that this world is far bigger than any one of us, ought to
make you think differently about your approach life.
I’ll go as
far as saying that a good majority of those who would return their ball
probably just need to travel a bit and see what the others got. Chances are
they will choose to hang on to their ball.
The lesson is one of gaining a balanced perspective: Do we care enough to think
and act on behalf of those who can’t do anything for us in return? How
do actively improve lives? More on that next week.
The gala we attended was hosted by
Living Water international. Together with regular people, volunteers and
donors, they provide clean water to those who don’t have access. Solving the
water crisis would lift over 1 billion people out of poverty. To understand the
crisis and how to help, please visit their website http:// http://water.cc/water-crisis/
