Often when Christians speak of water it is in terms of the wonderful qualities of H2O, how it bubbles and flows and refreshes. There is so much scriptural attention to water and Jesus is Living Water in the gospel of John.
Well, how about the way water flushes? After all, our homes have toilets which depend on water and even if we have gone "low flow with ours, we depend on them for sanitation. It is a "given" of our society and we are the better for it. But what about the 2.5 billion or more humans on the planet who do not have access to toilets and adequate sanitation. This is obviously more than an inconvenience. Poor sanitation means that drinking water becomes contaminated and children die. Girls don't go to school in many countries because there are no toilets. Women working in fields risk assault when they leave the safety of numbers to relieve themselves. Women spend an estimated 40 billion hours a year in the search for water.
Earlier this year actor Matt Damon and others promised that they wouldn't go to the toilet until everyone had access to one, a spoof perhaps of the commitment Angelina and Brad made not to marry until everyone had the right to marry. Damon and his posse are very serious about bringing our attention to the issues of adequate sanitation. http://www.rollingstone.com/movies/videos/matt-damon-launches-bathroom-strike-for-clean-water-with-bono-olivia-wilde-20130522
We might not think of a satisfying flush when we use the term living water, but maybe we should. Tuesday is World Toilet Day -- I kid you not - so give some thought to the more than one in three earthlings who won't be able to flush on November 19th. http://worldtoiletday.org/ We can all be flushed for justice.
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2 comments:
Such a dirty subject.
A friend just returned from a trip to Shrilanka. She has family there, and is only the first of her family born abroad.
Her relatives were shocked, and disgusted when she ate her dinner with her right hand.
They don't have modern toilets in her village. The right hand is for sanitation, and the left for eating.
Culture shock!
Good example Steve. While we don't think enough about where our waste goes, we can flush and wash for health. When travelling we get the eye-opener in a hurry.
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