Poverty

Greetings Faithful Readers...

Today is Blog Action Day 2008. You might be asking...what? It is a movement worldwide (over 10,000 blogs) to discuss one topic and raise awareness. The subject they have chosen is poverty and I decided to throw my blog into the fray and join in the cause...

Matthew 6:25 “That is why I tell you not to worry about everyday life—whether you have enough food and drink, or enough clothes to wear. Isn’t life more than food, and your body more than clothing?"

I have always considered myself middle class. I was raised by two parents who lived frugally and seemingly within their means. We turned the A/C on only on weekends and as a "special treat." We rarely ever ate out and bought clothes and furniture from my uncle who was an estate buyer. People would die with no heirs... the state didn't want the stuff...my uncle would bid on their belongings and re-sell them. Some of it would end up in our house... I never knew any differently.

We weren't poor...but I always wondered what life would have been like with more. What would happen if we bought name brand jeans...or real cereal instead of generic. Why did my clothes have patches but my friend's shirt didn't. I spent a lot of my childhood wondering why I didn't have what others did....then my perception changed.

I once took a mission trip to El Salvador and spent some time with a family who was living on the city dump. Not near it...on it. I talked to one of them who spoke broken, but understandable English. You know what I discovered? Their motivation wasn't what I thought it would be. Not once in our entire conversation did anyone from the family complain or wonder what having more would be like. They had learned one of the key secrets to life: contentment. They didn't necessarily treasure eating their dinner on top of a mound of garbage, but they realized that you can have happiness wherever you are. In fact, as we were leaving the dump where they lived, they wanted to give us objects that they had found so that we would remember them... Even when they had nothing...they had joy.

Where are you today? I know the economy is terribly bad. I know that you have more month than money. Where are your thoughts on poverty? Do you see yourself as broke and struggling? Or do you see this as an opportunity to find joy in what you do have and celebrate what God has blessed you with (no matter how small). Have you stopped giving of your time and resources because you don't know if you'll have what you need when you need it? Or are you being creative in what you CAN give so that others will know the character of the God that you serve?

Poverty is very real...but I think those that are truly broke are those that have lost perspective of what real wealth means. You can have very little...yet still have what's important.

BV