Quite simply, READ THIS ARTICLE.

For me to say these things (which I have thought for years) would not carry the same weight as someone who actually lives it out. This is eloquent and bold.

I have never understood our mentality in the West for buying one pair of poorly made shoes so another pair of poorly made shoes could be sent another country… when I could have spent HALF that money on another pair of poorly made shoes and sent the other half to a missionary residing in that other country.

I have never understood paying someone to ride a really nice bike across America on some “charity tour” so they could send a small percentage of that donation to relief work in Africa, or Haiti when I could have given them the same amount (or more) to get on a plane to same country.

Same with golf tournaments.

And more.

This paragraph may say it best:

Buying fair-trade coffee, boycotting Gap jeans, and eating only organic vegetarian foods can be important and valuable decisions. They cost time, money, comfort, and an established worldview. But they cannot be the end of our response to the deeply systemic and complex issues that allow human suffering to persist the world over. They don’t require risk.

We need bolder lives. It doesn’t mean getting on a plane to go half way around the world. It may take all the holy unction we have to go across the street and start a friendship with a homosexual neighbor.

We need bolder lives right where we live.