Two callers surprised me on Saturday night's show.
The first suggested that disease and starvation are God's will. Nothing could be further from the truth. We live in a broken and fallen world. All creation yearns and groans for transformation and completion. Until completion and glory, we live in both darkness and light. Until that time, we face the reality of our own disobedience. Starvation largely is a result of our own sinfulness. We who have resources and food usually do two things:

1)Hoard those resources for ourselves – as a result, we Americans are perhaps the fattest nation in world history. Regardless of that, we certainly are more obese than ever before. We are eating ourselves to death.

2)We fail to share those resources with persons truly in need. As the Help End Hunger Now ad states, nearly 30,000 people will die of starvation TODAY. Few, if any, of those persons live in America or first-world countries.

Why is that? We are selfish rather than generous. We are sinful. Be honest, we are. The first step to recovery is to admit the problem. We have plenty of resources, but we are selfish, and our sinfulness results in the starvation deaths of 30,000 people each day. Sounds brutal, but it is true.
Starvation is not the will of God. It is the result of our sinfulness. Generosity and compassion are the will of God. God desires that we share, generously in fact. When we do, people have food (and perhaps we are not obese). Two nice wins, huh?
The second caller suggested that starvation is a sign of God's “judgment” on a nation or a group of people. While that may certainly be a part of the Old Testament at times, followers of Christ are part of a new way.
First, the Bible devotes thousands of verses(that is a big number exceeding 2000!) to the priority of serving and feeding the poor.
Second, Jesus taught us that we will ultimately be judged on compassion. Just to name one example, Matthew 25.31-46 in the Bible paints that in a powerful way. Jesus says, “I was hungry, and YOU gave me food...” When we offer food to the hungry, we feed Jesus Himself, and we see the face of God. Those who have responded generously end up in the Kingdom of Heaven. Those who do not respond, conversely, find themselves banished from the presence of God forever.
God made us free. We have a choice. Serve Him, feed the hungry, give generously and live with compassion OR serve ourselves, hoard our food and resources, and find ourselves wondering where God is, both now and forever.