"The Lord looks down from heaven on all mankind to see if there are any who understand, any who seek God. All have turned away, all have become corrupt; there is no one who does good, not even one."
I was listening to the Psalms and a verse really struck me. It was Psalm 14:4. The two preceding verses are quoted above. Psalm 14:1 is widely known as an April Fool's joke but I didn't want to focus on that one for we've all been fools. None of us look for God. He draws us to himself. We are all fools.
But if we look at verses 2 and 3, we see God looking for anyone righteous, anyone who follows in the ways of God and he finds not a single person. Where does this lead us? I want to look at verse 4.
"Do all these evildoers know nothing? They devour my people as though eating bread; they never call on the Lord."
Psalm 14:4
Looking at what God calls evil in this verse, there are two things. The second one is not talking with God. Prayer is important and something we should do as if our souls depend on it. I really want to look at the first thing that makes one evil.
"They devour my people as though eating bread." Evildoers use people without regard, as though eating bread. Bread is easy to get. My family usually buys enough bread that we have to throw some out every couple of weeks because it has molded over. We really don't think too much of it as bread is cheap. One of my favorite meals is to grab a loaf of cheap bread from the grocery store, a can of deviled ham, and a bowl and spread the ham thinly across the cheap bread until all the ham, and usually the entire loaf, are gone. My kids have began helping me with the loaf so I'm not scarfing it all myself anymore.
I don't think a lot about bread besides what to put on it. Likewise, I don't put a lot of thought into where my clothes are made, where my electronic purchases are made, or even where my food comes from. It's on the shelf. It's cheap. It feeds, clothes, and entertains my family. Why should I care where and how it is made?
I benefit from a society of evildoers, partaking as one myself. I devour the livelihood of other human beings as though I devour bread. Who cares if my clothes are made by 6 year old kids in Bangladesh or China because it doesn't affect my kids? What about if my bananas are picked by slave labor in Central America? I'm okay with that because I get my bananas at $0.58 a pound.
I want to figure out how to better consume products not made by near-slave or slave labor. Our society devours the lives of children and adults all over the world so we can buy $5 shirts at Wal-Mart and not break our budget while the people who made these shirts may make that $5 in a week. What can we do about it?
I'm not sure. Our entire economy is built off of cheap labor because keeping prices down on the production side makes the sales go up on the output side and making a shirt for $1 instead of $1.50 really adds up fast on the profit margin. I think one of the most important things we can do as Christians is to learn self-discipline. Do we need a whole closet of shirts that we are going to wear twice a year? How many pairs of pants do we really need? Can we research how the companies that make our clothing do business and find clothing that may cost a little bit more but pay a living wage to their workers and treat them fairly? That may be a hard job to do but in order not to consume people, it is worth it.
One of the things I did about 6 months ago was clean out my closet and only keep about 7 outfits that I rotate through, plus all my work shirts (which I have way too many of) and my umpire uniforms. As some of these old outfits start to fall apart, I can find fair-trade clothing in the future. Not only does this limit my spending and unnecessary usage, it shrinks my footprint on throwing out excess clothing that I outgrow or deteriorates. I told Trina yesterday while walking around shopping that it was actually relaxing to know that I don't have to pick up any clothes just because they are there.
I am actually looking for more ways not to consume people for my own relaxation. We have been blessed so there are a couple people we pay to help us in our lives. We look for ways to bless people when tipping or making a purchase from a small shop that we really would like to see make it.
It's a struggle in our society to look for real opportunities to help bring resources to those who need it most. I still buy stuff from Amazon, adding to Jeff Bezos' $200 billion stockpile. I shop Wal-Mart and Target. I can't help noticing stuff that we get that says, "Made in China." I am nowhere near where I want to be and it is mostly because I am lazy and don't put in the work to research. But God reminds me that I am not righteous on my own. No one is righteous, no not one. Everything we try to do good, outside of the will and motivation of God, is self-serving in the end and draws us to devour people for our needs.
We can take heart that God is in the business of restoring those who society consumes. Verse 6 says, "You evildoers frustrate the plans of the poor, but the Lord is their refuge." The poor can take refuge in God who has a preferential care for them. I pray that God will begin changing my life so I can be part of the plan of the poor in bringing refuge to them. I have a long way to go and a long history to overcome but I pray that I don't consume others and that I call on the name of the Lord through it all. Then, maybe, I can live a life not set on evildoing.
Update: 8/30/22
I read this blog and am forced to look into my life to see if my desires expressed here have made any chance in the way I live. While I am hesitant to buy new clothes still, I don't know if I've made major life changes to be more conscious of the poor worldwide.
I try to be generous with those who serve around me. I shared graciousness and gratitude to these same people. It's so hard to be countercultural in a society that makes it comfortable to go along with the feast on the poor. It's so easy to be evildoers instead of empowerers. I guess the hardest part for me is the limited reach I have. I need to realize that my reach is what God has given me and I can only use the talents he's given me. With that, I can be successful in being humble and generous.
