Christian Responsibility of Abundance After Seeing Poverty
After visiting slums in Nairobi, Mark A. Taylor reflects on the tension between privilege and responsibility. The article considers what Christians who have been given much should do when confronted with the daily reality of those who have so little.
- A visit to a Nairobi slum revealed unforgettable poverty and resilience.
- The author reflects honestly on the privilege of being able to leave such conditions behind.
- Jesus’ words in Luke 12:48 frame the call to use abundance responsibly.
By Mark A. Taylor
This March I accompanied a small group of ministers as they saw firsthand the work of Christian Missionary Fellowship in Kenya. When we walked through slums in the capital city, Nairobi, all of us experienced squalor and poverty that none of us will ever forget.
But as I write this, after one week home from the visit, I’m still deciding what to do with what I discovered there.
A Visit to Nairobi’s Slums
Accompanied by CMF-employed social workers, Doug Priest and I visited one of the slum homes. Jane, a single mother, lives there with her mother and her two children. They are four of 800,000 crammed inside 1.5 square miles, just one family among the 70 percent of Nairobi’s 5 million people who live in conditions like hers, or worse.
The shanty measures maybe 12 by 14 feet. It is entered through a low door off a 14-inch alley bordered by similar huts jammed together as far as we could see. Inside, a naked electric lightbulb hangs from the ceiling. Sometimes power comes to it; sometimes not.
A square-foot fiberglass panel on one side of the corrugated metal roof allows daylight to penetrate the dark dwelling. At nighttime, a government-provided light tower rising several stories above the slum banishes darkness, reduces crime, and sends a welcome shaft into this closet where Jane lives.
“Welcome to our home,” she said. She told us briefly about the stew she cooks and sells on the street to earn her income.
I listened to her story and smiled at her and tickled the belly of her babbling toddler whose runny nose Jane wiped on the child’s shirt. Finally we stood to leave, and I couldn’t deny my own relief as we escaped into the noontime sunshine that penetrated the narrow aisle between Jane’s shanty and those beside it.
Privilege and Responsibility
This is our privilege, we wealthy visitors who can slip into such slums and then leave them quickly for the comfort we claim as our right. Our vision is broadened while our eyesight is blurred by the tears that flow when we try to grasp what we have seen and smelled there.
But with our abundance comes responsibility. “From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded,” Jesus said. “And from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked” (Luke 12:48).
I, like all the readers of this magazine, have been given much, so much. And, confronted by those who have so little, I can’t help but ponder anew how God may be asking me to use it.
Author: Mark A. Taylor
Mark A. Taylor, who served as Christian Standard editor from 2003 to 2017, retired in June 2017 after almost 41 years with Standard Publishing (Christian Standard Media).
