Is this good?

8 million dollars was raised by texting it for relief. This was reported at Huffington Post.

Is this good, or does this show why situations in Haiti happen in the first place? It is troubling to me how much money we, me, I have and how easily I get to spend it. I am reminded of a message I heard from John Piper, "It is not how much money should I give, but how much do I dare to keep." I think the devastation in Haiti and it is such a telling example of how our rich lifestyle effects the rest of the world.

When the earthquake happened in the Bay Area I was 18 years old. I was in a 7-11 playing a video game. The earthquake hit 6.9, and everything fell off the shelf. The electricity went down about 45 seconds into the quake. I then went home, checked on my grandfather, and then listened to the radio as the announcers were telling us the Bay Area World Series would be delayed and reports of devastation from around the Bay came.

For most people I know it was not a tragic quake as much as it was a story to tell. Today it was something that we barely remember, it was something that was experienced in the normal throngs of life. We rebuilt and there is very little reminder in the Bay Area twenty years later that anything even happened. Except that if a quake like that happens again we will be even more safe today than we were then because we spend trillions improving our infrastructure.

I look at these images now and wonder about my wealth. Does my wealth contribute to these problems? At the very least I know it is time that I give, not just with this situation, but I must learn the difference between what I want and what I need and think of others before myself (2 Cor. 9:1-5).