The Nobel Rescue Prize
The Nobel Peace Prize was awarded this past week, and it went to Muhammad Yunus. I'd never heard of the guy, but I had heard of his organization. In fact, about seven years ago I was so intrigued with what it did that I made an assignment out of it for my Economics students. I've been using it ever since to teach the foundation that must be in place for an economy to work.
His organization is Grameen Bank, and it makes "micro loans" to poor people. Since the dawn of time richer people have been handing out money (loans, gifts, whatever) to poorer people, yet we still have poor people, now umpteen millennia later. What Yunus and the bank realized was that the recipients of such magnanimity were doing certain things that kept them in poverty. The people the bank aids are not just poor, they suffer in the most abjectly horrific conditions imaginable.
Yunus tried what he thought was something new. He went about identifying those things that kept them in their dire destitution, and then made a list of "Borrower's Rules" that his clients were required to follow if they wanted the loans. Some of those rules include things as simple as making sure the community is planting enough crops for the year and securing safe drinking water. But others were about commitments to hard work, working together, maintaining discipline, using resources for the benefit of all.
Wow. Sounds a lot like the Law. Hmm. Not so new after all.
What struck me about this seven years ago was that it wasn't at all the small rectangular strips of green paper that made the difference. It was the behavior of the people. In other words, this is just not rocket science: People are poor because they don't do what is right--they don't treat each other right. We can blame all the exploiters we want, but if exploitees are sinners too, they perpetuate their hell.
What strikes me about all of this now is the answer to the question, "Why are people in that condition to begin with?" Seeing what the Bible says about how much God wants to provide great bounty to any who simply ask Him, and indeed how much that actually is for those who do ask, it still floors me that anyone still labors under the misapprehension that man trying it all on his own can actually do jack for keeping people out of destitution.
This is why I think the Nobel Peace Prize is more like the "Nobel Rescue Prize." Really, the reason one would do something so magnificent as to win such a prize is because a whole bunch of other schlubs have been jerked around, and said magnificent person has stepped up to rescue them from their predicament.
"Hey, there's a big ol' war going on over there! Look at that! Lots of people getting slaughtered! Oh the humanity! But wait! There's someone riding a white horse plucking some of the victims from the carnage! Let's give that man a prize!"
Ergh. How about just doing what it takes not to have the war to begin with? How about just exposing the machinations those powerful people who get people riled up to act on their belligerence, and then after the war's been raging a bit and a few buckets of blood have been spilt, they step up to fix things to show how much they deserve an award. How about just doing that?
All you have to do is ask the One who is Peace. It's just not that hard. But ya gotta ask Him.
Needless to say, when the Nobel Prize was announced and the press ran with it as it typically does, I heard a lot about Muhammad Yunus. That's cool. It's great he did nice things for people. But I didn't hear a word about the One who'd not only do nice things for people, but He'd love them as well, so much so that they couldn't be poor at all. Ever.
Who is that? If you really want to know, here are some thoughts about Him.
His organization is Grameen Bank, and it makes "micro loans" to poor people. Since the dawn of time richer people have been handing out money (loans, gifts, whatever) to poorer people, yet we still have poor people, now umpteen millennia later. What Yunus and the bank realized was that the recipients of such magnanimity were doing certain things that kept them in poverty. The people the bank aids are not just poor, they suffer in the most abjectly horrific conditions imaginable.
Yunus tried what he thought was something new. He went about identifying those things that kept them in their dire destitution, and then made a list of "Borrower's Rules" that his clients were required to follow if they wanted the loans. Some of those rules include things as simple as making sure the community is planting enough crops for the year and securing safe drinking water. But others were about commitments to hard work, working together, maintaining discipline, using resources for the benefit of all.
Wow. Sounds a lot like the Law. Hmm. Not so new after all.
What struck me about this seven years ago was that it wasn't at all the small rectangular strips of green paper that made the difference. It was the behavior of the people. In other words, this is just not rocket science: People are poor because they don't do what is right--they don't treat each other right. We can blame all the exploiters we want, but if exploitees are sinners too, they perpetuate their hell.
What strikes me about all of this now is the answer to the question, "Why are people in that condition to begin with?" Seeing what the Bible says about how much God wants to provide great bounty to any who simply ask Him, and indeed how much that actually is for those who do ask, it still floors me that anyone still labors under the misapprehension that man trying it all on his own can actually do jack for keeping people out of destitution.
This is why I think the Nobel Peace Prize is more like the "Nobel Rescue Prize." Really, the reason one would do something so magnificent as to win such a prize is because a whole bunch of other schlubs have been jerked around, and said magnificent person has stepped up to rescue them from their predicament.
"Hey, there's a big ol' war going on over there! Look at that! Lots of people getting slaughtered! Oh the humanity! But wait! There's someone riding a white horse plucking some of the victims from the carnage! Let's give that man a prize!"
Ergh. How about just doing what it takes not to have the war to begin with? How about just exposing the machinations those powerful people who get people riled up to act on their belligerence, and then after the war's been raging a bit and a few buckets of blood have been spilt, they step up to fix things to show how much they deserve an award. How about just doing that?
All you have to do is ask the One who is Peace. It's just not that hard. But ya gotta ask Him.
Needless to say, when the Nobel Prize was announced and the press ran with it as it typically does, I heard a lot about Muhammad Yunus. That's cool. It's great he did nice things for people. But I didn't hear a word about the One who'd not only do nice things for people, but He'd love them as well, so much so that they couldn't be poor at all. Ever.
Who is that? If you really want to know, here are some thoughts about Him.
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