I was watching a documentary on the disease ASL last night on PBS. I was not able to catch all of it, however, it was a 4 year documentary that captured guys who were started and researched technology to make people with ALS. Apparently one of their friends developed ALS. They put these cool computers on wheel chairs (Like Stephen Hawking) that was configured for sight recognition so they could communicate. According to the end of the documentary they had break through with ALS patients being able to “think and speak” without having to use sight recognition keyboard.
The thing that intrigued me most was that they were having issues with funding. Pharmaceutical companies thought they were rogue. It cost them $45,000 to meet payroll each week and at one point they only had $10,000 in the bank. Everyone was put on a $270 per week ration until funds could be secured.
As I was thinking about this… what would it be like to work at a place where you were working for the betterment of people or society? What would it be like to get up in the morning and know that you are working toward creating a better quality of life for people with disease or handicap? What would it be like to know that your life and work were adding value to the “greater good”? The company in the documentary had trouble getting funding but yet our government is spending billions on dollars on a “War of Terror”… whatever that is.
According to current figures our government has spent 440 billion dollars + on the war machine. Marching to the rhythm of the war drum is expensive. I cannot help to think about justice in this situation. Look at the man power, resources, technology that is going into killing people and the occupation of countries in the name of democracy. What if just a fraction of those resources were focused to disease research and cure? What if it was focused on technologies that promoted a better quality of living for the handicap, marginalized, or elderly? What about focusing time, resources, and money in providing clean drinking water, food, shelter, clothing…
How does this relate to Jesus and the
Kingdom of God? Is justice and social issues something we can be concerned about? Can social issues be used as platform to launch dialog about Jesus and the Kingdom of God?
Sigh… the war machine is calling… more later…
