This world is such a sad place. Philosophers say that people are generally good rather than evil, but I have a hard time believing them. I can ride the bus home and find instance after instance of evil. Today I was riding the bus and as I was getting off, a lady began talking badly about immigrants. She was pretty inappropriate with what she was saying and she knew it. I stared at her and eventually she stopped talking, but it saddened me to think about humanity's condition. I could say it is just our society that doesn't value individuals, but history shows differently. In Thailand children are sold into sex slavery. In China the government pushes people from their homes and into slums. In Japan a sex-trade flourishes. In Manilla children wander streets and trash dumps in search of food. In Somalia babies starve of hunger while military leaders live in abundance. In Germany people with disabilities are secretly hidden or killed. In Iran women are beaten and often tortured if they don't obey their husbands. In Guatemala people are forced to work long hours for extremely low wages to the point of early death and starvation. In America there is a class of people overlooked who have no home and live in hunger. This all happens amidst others who live lavish lifestyles with more money than they can spend. These people donate some money to charities but then move on. Money isn't the answer to all the world's problems, but it seems that selfishness is the cause of most of them. Who needs a billion dollars? Who needs a million? What is the point? There is no excuse for us to ignore the world's problems and focus only on ourselves. "The love of money is the root of all evil", I don't think Jesus could have said it any better. We live in a society who loves money more than anything else. I don't see anything wrong with enjoying life and not having to worry about money, but does Oprah Winfrey, or Bill Gates, or Warren Buffet really need billions of dollars? When is enough enough? Those are people we consider generous, but even they are selfish. Imagine what the world could be like if Bill Gates only kept 1 billion dollars and used the rest of his money to feed, clothe, shelter, and educate people who need help. He could do it and still be rich, yet he doesn't, and the children starve. The sad thing is, we respect what he does. We look at rich people as heroes. What about the people who give their lives serving the poor? Why aren't they in the Cosmo magazines? This is a sad world we live in. I could stop there and that would be sad, but there is another problem that we ignore. It is another extreme we overlook and pretend doesn't exist. As Christians, we forget that people often need more than Jesus. We say "what is the point of saving someone if we don't tell them about Jesus first?" I believe that view is incorrect. What if saving them is showing them Jesus? Christians are so quick to judge others, but are often unwilling to look at their own flaws. What has happened to holistic missions? Do we only help people to make them Christians, or do we help them because we love them? I desire to devote my life to helping people and to using my money to serve others who will see Christ in me. God had called me to missions. I am willing to go, and I want to go, but I think He is using a different method than I expected. I am following the prompts I am given and trying to figure out His will along the way, but it is hard. Lately I've been thinking that he wants me to do business and support myself/others through missions in a tent-making type of way. He's given me a passion to do business and raise money for missions. I don't ever want to see a starving child, or a beaten wife, or a man in despair because he can't keep his family warm in winter, and not be able to help them. For so long, I've had this view that Christians give everything up and go serve the poor. What about the people who pay for the food that feeds the hungry? Who buys the blankets for families that need them? Who advocates for the farmer that doesn't even make enough money to eat the food he grows? Where are the people who are called to do that? Have they given into greed? Or have Christians forced them to think their wealth is a bad thing? What if we all teamed up and sacrificed what we had together? What if we used all of our gifts that God has given us to make a better world and reach it for Christ? We can't change people's views on the value of humanity, but I'm sure we can make them feel more valuable. And people who feel valuable, are more likely to treat others that way. Jesus did that, and the world will be more willing to listen to truths about Jesus when they see the people who love him demonstrating those truths.