Stepping Up to the Plate

 Here's another lesson in American sayings for my African friends...

"step up to the plate"

This comes from the great American past time of baseball. When a batter comes up to home plate, he waits for the pitcher to throw the ball to him in the hopes that he (the batter) will hit the ball far away and bring in some home runs. This adds to the score and helps the team win the game.

In American English, the phrase to "step up to the plate" means it's time to come forward, do your job and help the team.

With the growing world food crisis caused by soaring prices, it's time for Christians around the world to "step up to the plate"-no pun intended- and help their fellow man. There are riots and demonstrations in dozens of countries by people scared their families will go hungry.

There was an opinion piece in the Australian newspaper The Age that was very interesting. It says.

In the Bible's Book of Revelation, famine rides with war, pestilence and death as the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. Famine at its most simplistic is the absence of food. Yesterday's article in The Age warned of the crisis in rising food prices that threatened to plunge 100 million people deeper into poverty. What distinguishes this crisis from other famines is the breadth of distance involved. It is a global problem. The food crisis, not enough food and sharply rising prices, is pushing people in almost 40 countries to riot and demonstrate.

What an opportunity for Christians to fulfill their Biblical mandate to feed our hungry neighbors! Romans 12:20 says we are even to give our enemies food and something to drink.

And, yes, there are tricky reasons why the world is in this predicament...the "catch-22" problem of creating clean bio fuels to reduce pollution in the world, but in so doing, we siphon off the food people need to eat.

But this problem doesn't mean we should do nothing. We must still help our neighbors...by feeding them and building sustainable projects to keep them fed.

So, the question is, in keeping with the baseball theme...

With this looming crisis, will Christians hit the ball out of the park and get a home run or will we strike out and miss the opportunity to win a major victory over famine?

Like it or not, it's crunch time and the Christians of the world are collectively up to bat.  What will you do?