Life as a Wheel

I said I would expand on my theory stated in "The Great Depression" post that life was like a wheel with six spokes. Here's what I wrote before:

"Let's think life as a wheel with six spokes. The six spokes would be: economics, health, learning, environment [and what it provides for you...often a living], social/sociopolitical, and spiritual. Each of those spokes deserves it's own paragraph [that'll come in the next post]. I believe God cares about each of these spokes. This model would work...except the spiritual spoke is a part of all of the others."

The hub in the middle represents abject, unrelenting, bone-grinding poverty. These people have absolutely nothing. The outer rim of the wheel representes wholeness, adequacy, "enough." Notice I didn't say "wealth" or "riches" or even "abundance". Simply the condition of having one's actual needs met.

Spoke one is economics. If you don't have much money, your options are limited. In Haiti, the poorest nation in the Western Hemisphere, the average peasant family ears 140$ USD/year by trying to grow coffee or cotton. They would like a better life for their six, seven, or eight children...to send just one of them to school would cost 50$/year. So they take a deep breath, choose one child, and send him off to learn, tightening down the screws on life's other necessities even further. In daily life a lack of money translates into a lack of options, which is perhaps a more accurate definition of poverty. The world's poor look at a situation and cannot say, "Well, I could pursue choice A, B, or C. Which one makes the most sense? Which wuld turn out best for me and my family?" No, under the circumstances, there is only choice A. That is the reality of poverty.

The next spoke of the wheel is health. A big part of health maintenance of course is getting adequate nutrition. Some people think the earth can't keep up with the food needs of its population. That is not true. In fact, the UN Food and Agriculture Organization delcared at a World Food Summit in Rome that the planet could produce enough food for every one of us to have a daily diet of 2720 calories. So why is a third of our world battling obesity and spending large sums to burn off excess calories, while the other two-thirds yearn to get more of them? Poor health is a major component of poverty and not disconnected from the first spoke, economics.

The next spoke is called learning. Poverty is greatly aggravated by the absence of information and acquired skills. Without these, the big world swirls around you like a dust storm, bombarding you from all sides with surprises that you have no way to comprehend or process, let alone overcome. An example: One of the biggest killers in the world today is diarrhea. I didn't just say it was uncomfortable; i said it could take your life. How so? Because the message passed around villages is: obviously, too much water inside of you if it is all coming out. We need to stop drinking for a while and dry out. Then it'll be okay." And children go on dying of dehydration by the hundreds of thousands. The beautiful thing is, an educated child in the developing world becomes a multiplier of learning, creating a ripple effect.

The fourth spoke is called environment. This is no sideline issue. Ivoery Coast has cut down and exported so much timber that it competes in volume with Brazil, a country twenty times as large. Since 1975, Ivory Coast has suffered the highest deforestation rate in the world. The herds of elephants, lions, hippos, leopards, antelopes, and many other animals have ben decimated as a result, which has changed things for humans as well. Haiti too is in ecological disaster. The sun beats down on the bare, parched earth and radiates upward again. Rain clouds form over the land, are driven up by the head, and then pushed off toward the sea, there to drop their precous moisture where thirsty people cannot access it.

The fifth spoke is social/sociopolitical. Poverty is, among other things, a functio nof being powerles in the hall of governments and the social structures that administer our lives. If you are fairly sure your vote won't count and that whatever taxes you pay will only end up financing a war or maybe increasing the governor's personal fortune, it is very easy to get discouraged and become fatalistic. When jobs and infrastructure improvements go inevitably to the tribe or region of the party in power, while other sections of the population are ignored, resentment grows. Corruption bleeds the meager resources that average citizens can muster, making it harder and harder for them to get on their feet. Nothing saps teh peasant's initiative faster than a sense that the system is stacked against him.

The final spoke of the wheel is called spiritual. Religious bondage can suffocate the poor in excruciating ways. This is true for those who forgo the nutrients of a meal because they feel they must obey the witch doctor's directive to sacrifice it to ward off evil, or when neighbors decline to help one another because they feel it will interfere with their karma. The starving child in the street, they say, is working out some issue from a previou slifetime, and so that process must run its course.

Jesus asked one time, "what good will it be for a man if he gains the whole world yet forfeits his soul?" All the dollars adn euros and pesos and shillings and rupees in the world will not equal the peace that comes from knowing a God who loves you. He's not out to get you or destroy you. He is, in fact, on your side. In fact, far from being peripheral, the spiritual aspect is essential to the other five spokes of the wheel.

Does God get involved with econonics- absolutely- Proverbs 14:23- all hard world brings a profit, but mere talk leads only to poverty. Scripture is full of instruction about money and labor.

Does God care about health- absolutly.

Does God care about education- yes, his entire revelation to us comes in the form of a book, which he fully expects us to read and to help others read. Teaching is a gift of the spirit

Does God care about the environment- check out Psalm 8- it is his earth, after all, he made it in the first place. He put this planet together to serve the needs of his highest creation, human beings. When we interrupt or currupt the systems that should sustain us, he is not happy. He wants to see the created order restored to its highest and best uses.

Does God care about our sociopolitical world? Definitely. Poverty and injustice break the heart of God. He warns us in Proverbs 22:22-23: do not exploit the poor because they are poor and do not crush the needy in court, for the LORD will take up their case and will plunder those who plunder them.

If we are seroius about helping overcome poverty, about moving people from the dark hole in the center to the state of wholeness ath the perimeter, we must care about all areas of their lives. It is not enough to simply favor one spoke. It's what makes community so extremely and unswervingly important. No one can care about all of those spokes alone, and i don't think we're called to do that. We refelct the image of God individually when we care about the whole, but we reflect the image of God communally when we actively care for the whole.