Unfair

This morning I read an article on Food banks and the injustice caused tears to happen. This is not something I can write about with glamour, wit or anecdotes. There's growing recognition in our country that poverty is accelerating. The gap between rich and poor is getting larger. 

Some are being paid £300,000 per week. 

And others haven't got enough food to survive. 

Our Church runs a Food bank and its use has hugely increased in the past couple of years. While I sit here drinking my Sunday morning coffee wondering what to cook for my dinner party on Tuesday (feeling so very middle class), I'm all of a sudden so conscious that there are millions of people living in the same country as me who are despairing at their daily situation. 

Here's the thing from the article that we should really pay attention to, from one of my favourite former Archbishops: 

"People who are using food banks are not scroungers who are cynically trying to work the system. They are drawn from the 6 million working poor in this country, people who are struggling to make ends meet in low paid or bitty employment." Rowan Williams. 

I'm not a politician or a person in power. I don't comprehend the complexities that come with Food banks, food systems or people trying to find employment in this country. But I think that as a human being, I should be more conscious and supportive of mechanisms which can bring change and transformation. I'm so humbled by the devoted charities and individuals who are giving their all to stop this problem from happening. 

So often, my eyes are fixed on overseas. But here, down my street, there are serious problems of injustice. It raises questions of me - how much can I realistically do? How much compassion as a human, can I actually muster? How can I, as one person, stop our world from being so incredibly broken? 

Big Sunday morning questions. No answers, but questions I will keep wrestling with because they are worth my attention. 

Let's stop judging scenarios with our ridiculous middle class eyes. Let's start caring, praying, acting, doing, supporting, changing. 

As a Christian, it's what I'm called to do. 

Unfair (adjective): "Unkind, inconsiderate or unreasonable."