God of the Lost Cause

In the latest World Vision Magazine, the president, Richard Sterns, has a compelling editorial. (Clicking on World Vision Magazine will take you to its pdf file. Scroll to page 4 which has his editorial.)

He refers to God as the "God of the Lost Cause":

Why feed a child who will likely die of malaria, cholera, or dysentery before her fifth birthday? Why educate a deaf child in a place like Gaza, roiling with violence and despair? Why give a loan to a widow in Zambia dying from AIDS or bring clean water to a Congolese war zone? These are the questions that World Vision has to answer every day.

As Christians we are compelled to see the world through a different lens. Our God is the God of the lost cause, the mustard seed, the lost sheep, and the widow’s mite. He values each life,each child, regardless of circumstances, as “precious in his sight.”

Our society likes to win, and in fact puts enormous effort and resources into winning. We want to "bet on a winner," not on a loser. But in God's kingdom, "the least" are immensely important, and as disciples of Jesus we need to insure that we follow Jesus in our concern and our good deeds in terms of ministering to and serving "the least among us."