I've been very critical and skeptical of Bono in this space in the past, but in his National Day of Prayer speech recently, he preached some truth:

God is in the slums, in the cardboard boxes where the poor play house. God is in the silence of a mother who has infected her child with a virus that will end both their lives. God is in the cries heard under the rubble of war. God is in the debris of wasted opportunity and lives, and God is with us if we are with them. "If you remove the yoke from your midst, the pointing of the finger and speaking wickedness, and if you give yourself to the hungry and satisfy the desire of the afflicted, then your light will rise in darkness and your gloom with become like midday and the Lord will continually guide you and satisfy your desire in scorched places...

Because there's no way we can look at what's happening in Africa and, if we're honest, conclude that deep down, we really accept that Africans are equal to us. Anywhere else in the world, we wouldn't accept it. Look at what happened in South East Asia with the tsunami. 150,000 lives lost to that misnomer of all misnomers, "mother nature." In Africa, 150,000 lives are lost every month. A tsunami every month. And it's a completely avoidable catastrophe.

A number of years ago, I met a wise man who changed my life. In countless ways, large and small, I was always seeking the Lord's blessing. I was saying, you know, I have a new song, look after it?. I have a family, please look after them?. I have this crazy idea...
And this wise man said: stop.
He said, stop asking God to bless what you're doing.
Get involved in what God is doing - because it's already blessed.
Well, God, as I said, is with the poor. That, I believe, is what God is doing.
And that is what he's calling us to do.

Along these same lines, last night I was reading Lev. and it struck me how in 21:16-23 God lays out that "no man who has a defect may come near...no many who is bling or lame...no man who is crippled...hunchbacked...he must not go near the curtain or approach the altar..." and so on and so on. What struck me was how all of this changed with Jesus. These were the very people that Jesus went to, these are the very people who now have direct access to God through the Holy Spirit. The curtain has been torn, all are welcome. I think what Bono is saying above and what I still see too often is that the affluent are viewed as having been "blessed by God" and it's not necessarily wrong to thank God for the blessings He has given us, but we view blessings only in light of monetary wealth, nothing more. How shallow of us! I agree with Bono, God is with the poor, He is in the slums with them, caring for their children, taking care of them, extending them His grace, and promising them a place in His eternal Kingdom. We'd all be better off to reflect on this and then as fellow blogger edluv suggest, actually be our worldview for once.