An old saying is: "If it ain't broke, don't fix it." There are other sayings which relate to such things as roof repair: "if it is not raining, the roof does not leak - when it rains, we can't repair it anyway." There are many areas in which we tend to things to degenerate to a point that a crisis is before us, before we act. Litter control, pollution, debt management, car or home repairs or the state of our marriages, often seem to be part of the areas in which we let things go until we are faced with a huge crisis. Our world is heading for increasingly horrifying and unsolvable problems by letting crises build until we are finally forced to do something. Often those responding and trying to do something are fighting different cultures and mind-sets that regard the help offered almost a if it were profanity.
In a recent Reader's Digest magazine, there was an article about Bekele Geleta who was born in Ethiopia, but has since moved to Canada and is now a Canadian citizen. He has risen to the top position in humanitarian aid as the new secretary-general of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC), the world's largest humanitarian organization. He is one of the few leaders in a field dominated by Americans and Europeans. He is a Canadian of African origin. Reading some of his life story and the incredible experiences of his own life is heart-rending in itself, and his background certainly has shaped him for the position he now occupies. As the Reader's Digest put it: "Consider the heartbreaking inventory of human disaster around the world, all the people struggling to survive and regroup and rebuild after earthquakes, cyclones, famine, cholera and other perils. It's his job to get help to them, all at once."
We live in a land that has known virtually none of these great problems, but we are a small nation in a world that is facing some of the greatest disasters mankind has known. Almost all of these terrible future dangers and present disasters of our own making. Some natural disasters like earthquakes and terrifying storms have always taken their toll on human life, but usually only in the hundreds or rarely low millions. Starvation, hunger, disease and war have brought about the vast majority of all the suffering on this globe - and we are responsible for those. We are aware of the growing lack of fresh water and arable land - leading to hunger and disease. We know the horror war brings.
The story of Bekele Geleta contains the prayer of his mother Alemi. "God give my children the courage to help." This family has lived in need of help and recognizes the blessing it is when help comes. However, the family also typifies the kind of crisis we humans are so easily led into. My thoughts are not at all intended to focus on this family, or to be critical, because they are to be admired for the struggle that took them out of a life of fear in Ethiopia. We all recognize the problems the world is facing, with the population reaching numbers that cannot be sustained by a limited earth. In the story of the Geleta family, we read that Bekele was one of eight children to illiterate parents. The population of the world is increasing by about 90 million per year - most of them born to families that are illiterate and in need of help. Countries that are "advanced" and "rich" have a birthrate of about 1.3 or 1.6 children per family. It is clearly understood that the vast majority of newcomers to mankind are being born in circumstances that lend themselves to disease, hunger and the violence that comes from those in need being unable to sustain life. Many are illiterate and do not understand the dilemmas.
Simple mathematics shows us that when a family of 2 has 8 children in a society that wants more children, and those 8 marry the 8 from another family, the original 4 have now produced 16 and in another generation those 16 might produce 124 and thus the numbers multiply. When two families of 2 have 1.5 children each, that means 4 produce 3 and thus the numbers decrease. Therefore those having 8 children soon have huge numbers to support. Those with 1.5 children are shrinking in number. Thus the population of a number of nations is declining as the population of others is dramatically growing. The problem we face is that the growth is far surpassing the decline - and that growth is taking place in nations that do not have the resources to feed and care for their people and on an earth that is full. So children cry, are sick and hungry.
The earth no longer is empty as it was when God told Adam and Eve to "be fruitful and multiply" (Gen. 1:28). Now the population has risen to over 6 billion humans and indications are that it will rise to about 20 billion in a couple of decades. We have a crisis now, but the crises to come will make these problems seem small. We see illiterate people having many children who have almost no opportunity to solve their own problems, let alone the problems of the world - and we see that unless the hand of those who are able reaches out often and abundantly, suffering will continue. The shocking and sad part is that when we reach out to help, the problem only compounds itself, because a year later there are new mouths to feed and new hands reaching out for a decreasing supply of goods. This crisis is one we humans can fix - but we will not. The crisis is not yet big enough to reach our lands and when it does, we will not have the ability to control things. There is virtually no real attempt to address this crisis within the lands that are suffering so terribly. None of us can bear to look at the suffering, it tears at our heart, yet we have not seen anything of the magnitude of suffering that is coming. We can still help, but until attitudes change, more help will be needed next year and more the year after.
There is a terrifying scenario described in the book of Revelation. Four horsemen are described and each one symbolizes a crisis that is far worse than any we humans have known. A white horse that shows religious confusion, a fiery red horse indicates war and violence, a black horse starvation and hunger, a pale horse that indicates death by war, hunger and disease. These have power over a quarter of the earth to wreak havoc that we cannot imagine. Jesus Christ stated: "There will be great tribulation such as has not been since the beginning of the world until this time, no, nor ever shall be. And unless those days were shortened, no flesh would be saved" (Matt. 24:21,22). This present state of suffering will go on and on with increasing horror. One may wonder about the flood of Noah's time when only 8 people survived, but the flood was a quick death to a few million people, compared to the ongoing suffering to billions over a period of time. It is in the amount and complexity of suffering that Jesus referred to in Revelation that makes this time the worst the world has ever known.
It is too late for mankind to save many of those who suffer at this moment. We have the ability to solve most of the problems in the world, but we do not have the will or knowledge. Those who have huge families that they cannot feed will not consider limiting their families, those who exploit others for political gain misuse the help offered. Those giving help are losing the ability to help in the economic crisis the world is now in. In a word, this world is a mess and we do not have the solutions nor do we have the character needed to implement the solutions. We have allowed the crises to grow until they are overwhelming. We have shown that on the political scene we cannot get along. Furthermore, we do not have the time to train and educate people on how to solve the problems even if we knew the solutions before disasters strike. Our one and only hope is the return of Jesus Christ with all power and perfect wisdom. He will have the power to control warmongers, and to understand and direct humans. Diseases will be healed and cease to plague the world. Wars will cease, people will truly care about others and none will be illiterate and in poverty. We all realize that much in this world is indeed "broke" and in need of repair. When He comes that which is broken will be mended on time. Mankind will survive because He promised He will come (Isa. 2:3,4 and Micah 4:1-5).