Scripture: 1 Corinthians 4:7
For who makes you different from anyone else? What do you have that you did not receive? And if you did receive it, site why do you boast as though you did not?

Thought for the Day: American society tends to exalt or condemn individuals. Steve Jobs is responsible for everything great about Apple. Bill Gates birthed Microsoft with a burst of magical lightning from his forefinger. Michael Jordan single-handedly took the Chicago Bulls to six championships. It’s entirely President Obama’s fault that the NSA and Congress are out of control, or it’s entirely to Obama’s credit that this country is finally creating a healthcare system on par with what the rest of the world has had for decades. Way to catch up, U.S.A.!

I don’t know. To me, the idea that everyone in your society should have access to health care, housing, food and education, is a no-brainer. To me, if you’re rich, you have an obligation to share the wealth. That’s not even a biblical consideration, it just seems like common human decency. But maybe common human decency is a myth.

This world needs a major disruption in the same way Jesus disrupted the Roman Empire. We need to start thinking differently about our responsibilities to each other, and we need to lose, once and for all, this ridiculous idea of the self-made person. This country—this world, will thrive only if we begin working together and caring for each other. Like his Jewish ancestors, Jesus understood that human ownership of anything was an affront to God. What would happen if we all started looking at the world differently—not as a place to rape and pillage and turn into private property, but as something that belongs to God and God alone, who grants us the permission to use Earth’s resources? This was Jesus’ wonderful message: None of this is ours, all of it is God’s, therefore we should all be thankful for the abundance of this world, and every single one of us is responsible for making sure every single one of us is cared for.

That’s a world I’d look forward to helping create any day. What about you?

Prayer: Okay God, we have some serious work to do. Move through the hardest hearts of humanity and melt them into instruments of compassion. Remove the filth of greed that permeates our systems, and reveal to us your kin-dom, full of love, cooperation, and mutual concern. Amen.