Injustice of Running ?

Running the other morning, I was struck by something I hadn't thought of before. Here I am trying to burn the calories for the extra food on which I glut myself running right past people who don't have a roof over there head and probably have to take handouts for whatever nourishment they do receive. How awful am I that I've been running for over 20 years, and have never thought of this before! Somehow in my mind, I've always thought of runner's as nice people, and people who exercise at all as reasonable responsible people. As I thought more, I began to think about how the act of exercise isn't bad, but once I get on this train of thought, I buy $85 - $115 shoes, new outfits, pay to run in races, and even travel and get hotel rooms for that. How much of that money and time could I have used actually helping someone. Then I start to feel guilty, so I stopped thinking about it.

The next day, I got an e-mail article from one of my favorite magazines (Relevant) which talked about social justice yet didn't make me feel uber-guilty for not fixing the world. It mentioned how the we are always aware of every detail of horrible conflicts going on elsewhere, and it's really difficult to know if we can do something and what that would be. Does something like this give people like me who tend NOT to do things an excuse or comfort zone, or does it challenge us to not try to save the world but see the goal of justice in other smaller ways, which may make more impact on a smaller scale? If we are to help the poor, but know that the poor will always be there, how does that pan out in the long run? Are we ever to expect to be encouraged by seeing change on a larger scale or is there somewhere else from which our encouragement should come?