Livin’ Large

Brian is doing a new series at church called “Livin’ Large”…it’s basically about taking a look at the things/blessings we have. He asked us a question to answer in a group…my answer was different than most, I think I took a different approach–and in no way did I mean for my answer to be smart alecy or seem like I am high and mighty or better than anyone, it’s just what came to mind. Anyway, he asked us to reply to this: If we were sat in front of the top 10 wealthiest people what would we say to them. A lot of people replied with “can i have some money?” or “how did you do it, how did you become rich?” but my answer was simply this “I’ve saved a handful of babies and children from dying, what did you do and is it something you’re proud of?” The meaning behind this response is simple. I get paid A LOT less than they do, but at the end of the day I love what I do and I go home knowing I made a difference in someones life, whether it’s performing CPR on a baby to save their life, doing a simple diagnostic test to determine what disease they have or simply smiling at them and telling them to have a good day. Compared to the top 10 wealthiest people I make like nothing, but I’m happy and having more money won’t make me happier.

Did you know that if you make $37,000 or more a year you are in the top 5% of wage earners in the world. If you make $45,000 or more a year you are in the top 1% of wage earners in the world. Put that into perspective and I’m rich. I/we make more than 99% of the population in the world. There are some people in the world that live on $1 a day, can you imagine living on $1 a day now. Three billion people live on less than $2 per day while 1.3 billion get by on less than $1 per day. Seventy percent of those living on less than $1 per day are women.

Think of some of the things we spend our money on and some of the things we probably don’t need. This is a list of things we could do with the money we spend on certain things and what we could do with the same amount of money.

$8 could buy you 15 organic apples OR 25 fruit trees for farmers in Honduras to grow and sell fruit at their local market.
$30 could buy you an ER DVD Boxset OR a First Aid kit for a village in Haiti.
$73 could buy you a new mobile phone OR a new mobile health clinic to care for AIDS orphans in Uganda.
$2400 could buy you a second generation High Definition TV OR schooling for an entire generation of school children in an Angolan village.

Kind of puts things into perspective huh? So next time you want that new iPod or camera, think of what else you could be doing with that money. (myself included, since I did just buy a new ipod)
If you want to see how rich you are go here : http://www.globalrichlist.com/

2 thoughts on “Livin’ Large

  1. That was a wonderful perspective. I like it.
    Now I have to ask myself how much money I will put in those good things to help others, instead of filling my own selfish wants. Do you have links to those ministries which you could post? Others may have links to add also.

    Thank you for writing that, DAUGHTER-IN-LOVE. You are not only having a good impact on Jonathan, now you are having an effect on me!

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