It is amazing to Google a satellite nighttime picture of Korea and look at the electric light difference between the North and South. North Korea is a nuclear power that doesn’t even supply its people with lights. Then there is the issue of food. Once again because of government mismanagement and/or deliberate action masses of people in North Korea are facing starvation. We have food, lots of it. Too much if you look at the size of our children. Our moral dilemma is should we send North Korea food only to have it put in storage for their military. It is difficult for us to imagine a government allowing its own people to starve and yet we saw such behavior during the years we lived in East Africa. Tons of food rotted on shipping docks while fifty miles away people were dying for lack of nourishment.
Have we done our human duty to give and then not have control over the use of what we give? This is a question akin to giving our offerings only to see church officials with large travel budgets using the money to fly all over the world when they could have used Skype for free. Is the issue not our concern because we did the right thing by giving; thus transferring the responsibility to others?
Living in a modern world with new technologies continually changes the moral landscape. Does God wish for us to carefully ponder our giving and not merely blindly trust others to do the right thing? Service and sharing is the noble part of our humanity. It is the substance of our happiness and of our moral values.
Written by Roger Bothwell on May 23, 2011
Spring of Life Ministry, PO Box 124, St. Helena, CA 94574
Rogerbothwell.org