What does one billion mean to you?\u00a0 It\u2019s that next level, the powerful tier above a million that gets our attention.\u00a0 On the heels of the Academy Awards, the movie \u201cAvatar\u201d has made more than 2.5 billion dollars worldwide\u2014and it\u2019s not done yet.\u00a0 Ted Turner bestowed a billion-dollar gift on the United Nations a few years back.\u00a0 We know about the Gates Foundation.\u00a0 And in the news lately, Tiger Woods has been dubbed the only athlete ever to reach that mark in earnings.\u00a0 But then there\u2019s the stark reality we learned about in 2009 that the number of people who are chronically hungry in the world has reached one billion.<\/p>\n
One billion.<\/strong>\u00a0 Where do I start?\u00a0 How can I make a difference?<\/p>\n If you\u2019re like me, you have asked yourself these questions.\u00a0 It\u2019s a mind-numbing number, one that can make making a difference seem futile.<\/p>\n But we\u2019re the church.\u00a0 We don\u2019t get to make that decision for ourselves.\u00a0 We are called<\/em> to act.\u00a0 We are called to reach out to our neighbor.\u00a0 Not<\/em> acting is not an option.<\/p>\n So if you find that number so incomprehensible that it almost makes you not want to try, set it aside.\u00a0 I\u2019m not suggesting you ignore the reality of the global picture of hunger but just keep it in perspective.\u00a0 Lead with your gut for a moment.\u00a0 Is it okay that thousands and millions and even one billion people are chronically hungry?\u00a0 Is it okay that one person in your community is sleeping on the streets or walking around without knowing where that next meal will come from?\u00a0<\/p>\n If you\u2019ve ever been intensely hungry and you had to wait an hour or two to eat, recall those hunger rumblings and allow that to take over your gut.\u00a0 It\u2019s that gut reaction that has the potential to circumvent numbers that almost seem made up.\u00a0 It\u2019s your gut that in a moment of cerebral paralysis can kick into overdrive that instinct, that compassion that has compelled you to read this blog and care about doing something about it.<\/p>\n Follow your gut.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" What does one billion mean to you?\u00a0 It\u2019s that next level, the powerful tier above a million that gets our attention.\u00a0 On the heels of the Academy Awards, the movie \u201cAvatar\u201d has made more than 2.5 billion dollars worldwide\u2014and it\u2019s not done yet.\u00a0 Ted Turner bestowed a billion-dollar gift on the United Nations a few […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":211,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-979","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-post"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n