Thank God we don’t have to worry about food. Well, most of us living in Australia anyway. Many of us will in fact wake up this morning with a roof over our heads, the prospect of (at least) three meals (possibly more) and with an extremely low probability of someone trying to kill us later today.
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In fact, one of the main headline items (as we peruse the news at breakfast) will be a story of how one talk show presenter will be jumping ship to another programme because she wasn’t getting as much as another male presenter. That in this enlightened day and age, males should be getting paid more simply because they are… male, is disturbing in itself, but that is not the point of this article.
Anyway, as we scroll down the rest of the news portal (or keep turning the pages of the paper edition), we might possibly notice a tiny article mentioning World Food Day was this week (the 16th of October).
In light of that, here is some “food” for thought:
Apparently 800,000 tonnes of food is wasted in New South Wales each year. According to one report, that is equivalent to $10 billion or $3800 per household in the state. Meanwhile in the nation of Chad (population 15 million), there are 350,000 people in danger of starvation. That’s going without food, not just because they choose to because the jeans don’t fit anymore, but because they just have to. There is nothing to eat. The life expectancy of someone living there is 52 years and the average per capita income in Chad is $2500. Compare that with the $1.8 million that the previously mentioned television host was reportedly offered (and rejected) and it is just a little bit mind boggling.
“Give us this day our daily bread,” is part of the prayer that Jesus first taught his disciples (Luke 11:3). How thankful are we for what we have? How content are we with what we have? How mindful are we of those who go without?