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**This post may contain sponsor, affiliate, and/or referral links. I have been given Overrated by Eugene Cho free of charge in exchange for this review. However, the opinions in this post are my own. For more information please read my full disclosure statement here. **
I was driving home from cleaning my moms house, listening and jamming out to KLove, one of my favorite Christian radio stations, when a song I could not help but sing along came on:
♫ I woke up this morning
Saw a world full of trouble now
Thought, how’d we ever get so far down
How’s it ever gonna turn around
So I turned my eyes to Heaven
I thought, “God, why don’t You do something?”
Well, I just couldn’t bear the thought of
People living in poverty
Children sold into slavery
The thought disgusted me
So, I shook my fist at Heaven
Said, “God, why don’t You do something?”
He said, “I did, I created you” ♫
Do Something By Matthew West
Can't See the Video? Click Here.
The truth that rang true in that song stopped me in my tracks. I was speechless and had to stop singing just to really absorb the deeper meaning in it.
I have more often that not wondered: Why is there so much poverty and suffering in this world? Why isn't anyone or God doing anything more to stop it? And the answer is right there in the song: "I created you!" God created us to help and love the people of this world, and I can't expect other people to do what I am not willing to do myself.
Well I've tweeted my support isn't that enough? I asked God, want to know the answer I got? Do your tweets of support really create the change you want to see in this world? Do your tweets feed the hungry or save kidnapped women in Africa?
After that I was curious, so I researched into the twitter #HASHTAG campaigns to see if they truly started and created change or if they were just enough to get people to #hashtag it then forget all about it by moving on with their lives.
Lets look into the #BringBackOurGirls Campaign. The #BringBackOurGirls campaign was a campaign launched in order to bring awareness and hope of rescue to 276 Christian girls who were kidnapped by Boko Haram, extreme Islamic terrorists. It sparked so much concern and outrage that a social media campaign broke out, billions of tweets were sent to support finding and rescuing these girls.
High profile celebrities, americans and even Michelle Obama posted a sad photo of herself with the #BringBackOurGirls on a piece of paper. But do you know what the social campaign did other than be the trend of the day on a day in April? Nothing.
Our prayers are with the missing Nigerian girls and their families. It's time to #BringBackOurGirls. -mo pic.twitter.com/glDKDotJRt — The First Lady (@FLOTUS) May 7, 2014
Did it create awareness? Yes, but did it make anyone so passionate about rescuing these girls that they started public unrest, rallied groups and make politicians really address the issue? No, it didn't. The #BringBackOurGirls campaign was gone just as quickly as it had come on.
What did the campaign do then? It allowed the terrorist group to mock the world, and demand that we "bring back his captured militants".
Where are those girls now? Sold for $12 or 9 Euros to islamic militants somewhere to be their wives, most of which were forced to convert to islam.
We are a generation so wrapped up in ourselves, so dispassionate about humanity that all we do is spend point 2 seconds writing a tweet just to gain attention that you support it while not actually sacrificing anything more than 140 characters of your life. No rallies, no demanding the president to handle this, no putting any real care into it because we don't want to sacrifice our precious time, energy or comfort.
"I fear that if we're not careful, we might become … the most overrated generation."
Eugene Cho, Author of Overrated
In Eugene Cho's book Overrated he confesses that he too has been more in love with the idea of changing the world and more interested in telling a good story that actually living it. Overrated is his confession that he didn't want to change and move out of his comfort zone in order to change this world. He is so brutally honest about his self reflection that you can't help but self reflect yourself.
"Everyone thinks of changing the world,but no one thinks of changing himself."Leo Tolstoy
Are we supporting causes via social media or by physically doing something just to gain attention to ourselves, or is it to show God's love and care to those in need?
Are we willing to allow God to push us outside of our comfort zones in order to change us as we do the work he calls us to do, to help the people we are called to help?
God has blessed American citizens with incomes and work that some can only dream about.
Just think about this for a minute:
1/3 human beings live on less that 2 dollars per day, thats $56 a month.
1/10 people do not have safe water to drink - imagine drink dirty, brown water every day. Feel grateful for that Brita filter yet?
1/3 people live without access to improved sanitation - no indoor plumbing, where does it go? outside, where it could run into their water supply.
1/7 people in USA are living in poverty. Take a look at those around you, one of the 7 people that you walk might be living in poverty.
20.4 million people in USA alone live in deep poverty.
Statistics pulled from Overrated by Eugene Cho.
Even the lower middle class is filthy rich in comparison to 3rd world countries and the homeless, widows and orphans in our own city streets.
AND Don't just assume that just because you don't see any in your city that it is not there and that you can't do something. God created you to do something, to help even those around you. You can do something, and your work, no matter how small, will make a difference in peoples lives.
"Never worry about numbers. Help one person at a time and always start with the person nearest you."Mother Teresa
"Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much, and whoever is dishonest with very little will also be dishonest with much."Luke 16:10
Seriously though friends, read Overrated by Eugene Cho and challenge yourself to go against this narcissistic culture and choose not to be apart of one of the most overrated generations.
Enter the giveaway for a chance to win a copy of Eugene Cho's Overrated!
photo credit: Ed Yourdon via photopin ccphoto credit: Marquette University via photopin cc
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