thirsty?

my next door neighbor is an extremely old woman who I call JaJa Pius - she sits in her ditch and waves to me while she collects water for her family.

my best friend once told me about a time she was house sitting for a family and she had to give their cat BOTTLED WATER everyday.

think about the insanity of that.
then also think about these facts:

3.575 million People die each year from water-related disease.
43% of water-related deaths are due to diarrhea.
84% of water-related deaths are in children ages 0 – 14.
98% of water-related deaths occur in the developing world.
884 million people, lack access to safe water supplies, approximately one in eight people.
The water and sanitation crisis claims more lives through disease than any war claims through guns.
At any given time, half of the world’s hospital beds are occupied by patients suffering from a water-related disease. Less than 1% of the world’s fresh water (or about 0.007% of all water on earth) is readily accessible for direct human use.
An American taking a five-minute shower uses more water than the typical person living in a developing country slum uses in a whole day.
About a third of people without access to an improved water source live on less than $1 a day. More than two thirds of people without an improved water source live on less than $2 a day.
Poor people living in the slums often pay 5-10 times more per liter of water than wealthy people living in the same city.
Without food a person can live for weeks, but without water you can expect to live only a few days.
The daily requirement for sanitation, bathing, and cooking needs, as well as for assuring survival, is about 13.2 gallons per person

and house pets are drinking bottled water......

there are seven children who live down the road from the road from meand they lost their father when they were very little and recently lost their little brother who was poisoned. They live in a room (with their mom) that's a little bit bigger than my bathroom.

think about that...8 people living in a room the size of my bathroom where I use more water showering for two minutes than they would all use in an entire day.

THEN think about the 2,000 verses in the bible that talk about the poor and marginalized. The one's that talk about how they are thirsty but no one will give them anything to drink (matthew 25: 41-43). or how about that one verse that talks about how we need to sell everything we own and give to the poor and only then we can go and follow Jesus. (luke 18:22)

THEN think about your lifestyle and if you're anything like me this will scare you. This fear will then cause you to justify every single one of those verses because if we even dare to think about how serious God is about ALL of the people in this world that would mean we have to change something about the way we live and interact with others. This same fear that does all that will then have you looking at every other verse in the bible to find the one thing that you can discuss with strong convictions because it doesn't cause you to look internally...verses about homosexuality and politics...verses that make us feel like we're really following God's word.

all this to say...I have a lot of lifestyle changes and internal examinations that need to happen.