A few weeks ago, my wife and I participated in an annual event in our community called the Crop Walk for Hunger.  People who walk raise or give money to combat hunger around the world.  We love doing it.
     I hate to see anyone go hungry.  Unfortunately, as I write these words any number of people die from hunger.  Even sadder, most of these are children.  It's heartbreaking.
     Most of us are well fed.  Most of us live in reasonable shelter.  Most of us do not need to worry about where our next meal will come from.  Moreover, most of us take these things for granted.
     A book I've been reading (The Great Derangement by Amitav Ghosh) makes an interesting point in this regard.  Ghosh suggests that we do not so much use reason to order our lives as we walk in habitual motion.  We do not think about what we are doing or why we are doing it.  We just go through the motions.
     So it is with global hunger.  So busy are we going through our motions, trying to stay afloat of our many existential priorities, that we forget the bigger picture.
     Tragically, yet remarkably, the bigger picture is much bigger than we think.  We walk in the umbra of something far more weighty than we can presently imagine.  In this presence, this living God, all things, including global hunger, find conclusion and meaning. 
     One of my Jewish friends has often told me that, "We work with God to help the world" (tikkun olam).  Indeed, we do.  We go through our motions, yes, but God does, too.  Together, if we listen to each other, we can move the world forward, forward to its wonderful destiny.
     But we need to listen.