I've been intensely studying poverty over the last two terms of school. The subject is massive and often times overwhelming. There is a distinct desire to get involved personally and put a stop to the cruelty and abuse that is causing poverty; yet at the same time there still is this odd separation and distancing that i do. m

These last two weeks we turned our focus to the environment, agriculture, and natural resources as aspects of development and sources of progress to end poverty. The more i read i was shocked to realize how little i have ever even considered them as important priorities in my life. (which is really sad considering one of the first call God gives man is to take care of the land... hmmm!)

Then i did my classic separation and distancing move... i mean i have never dump hundreds of thousands of gallons of toxins in to a river, nor have build dams that displayed millions of people, nor did i write policies that encourage the abuse of the voiceless poor natural resources. But the easy i had in separating and distancing myself didn't come so easy this time...

I started to reflect on ways that i simply just lazy. how i leave a stack of dishes and then have to take 3 to 4 more gallons of water to scrub those crusty plates clean, or how often i simply can't be bothered to separate my recycling, or many hours i waste on fb sifting through meaningless photos or status update instead of going out to build face to face relationships with people.

I realized how my laziness... my lack of discipline... directly is responsible to adding to the burden of poverty that afflicts millions. that being said, i realized that the best way to fight poverty is to stop being lazy! to find a place in yourself to be disciplined enough to be conscious of how much precious clean water i just let run down the drain, how long my showers are, how often i leave lights on in empty rooms, how often i leave chargers plugged in, how often i don't use public transport in the name of being "in a hurry". or how often getting lost in internet googling makes me skype daily prayer or run out of time to do my bible reading...

I have really big dreams. i want to run hostel one day that is beautifully married to prayer community. I want that hostel to be help hurting people, encourage people to journey with God. I want that hostel to be environmentally friendly, i want it to be as green as possible. I want it to be a source of relief for the poor not another system that takes advantage of them. I dream of tourism ending poverty. I dream of having a garden and learning about the beauty of agriculture and helping use that physical process of planting and growing to teach youth responsibility, self worth, and spiritual awakening. I dream of having a well trained pet pig!

If it can't start now... in the small stuff, like structuring my day to make the most of every hour, or meal planning so i don't waste loads of perfectly good food just because it was at the back of the frig, or setting out two bins: one for recycling and one for garbage... if i can't be responsible with the things God has given me now... what makes me think that when i am responsible for the big stuff like a hostel, or a garden, or my pet pig... that all the sudden i will have the balls to sacrifice and put into them in a proper way so that both the process and the end is considered good!?!?!?

Laziness causes poverty. I'm not about poverty... so i can't be about laziness... here's to March and Ending Laziness to End Poverty. a