"There can be no keener revelation of a society's soul than the way in which it treats its children." Nelson, Mandela
Psalm 140:12 “I know that the LORD secures justice for the poor and upholds the cause of the needy.”
There are over 300 verses in Scripture about what God thinks about the poor and needy. 300 is a huge number! It only says to me how great is His compassion for those who are in need. If it is that important to Him, it must be that important to us.
The question that I wrestled with this past week while I've been home is, what is being poor? One definition that I found was as follows: the state or condition of having little or no money, goods, or means of support; condition of being poor.
We often think of poverty in the sense of material things, the state of one's home, their clothing, transportation, education level. We link poverty to "having" little and then we compare it to our living conditions. When we visit a place like Sierra Prietta, it is easy to see poverty. With no running water, limited electricity, no flushable toilets, no air conditioning or showers, we see what little they have.
Poverty goes beyond material wealth. The last part of the definition said condition of being poor. Could it be that each person is needy in some manner? I've heard it said that being poor is a mindset. The people of Sierra Prietta were by no means "poor in spirit". It was quite the opposite. They stood and walked with heads held high, shoulders back, walking with dignity and grace. They may have been without a lot of things that we can say that we have, however they still had a roof over their heads, food on the table, although it by no means measured to what we have. In fact, most of them eat one meal a day and their children are still hungry. There are many places in the world that don't have even that. Unfortunately, we even have families without meals in the United States. Hunger in any country should not exist. I've heard it said it is because of the greed of a few.
Health care is another noticable indicator of poverty. I noticed in one family that there were two babies, both under the age of a year, cousins, I think the mothers were. I began to think that there are girls getting pregnant there under the age of 20, just like in the US. While some are not married and there are needs associated with that, I started thinking about when those babies are born. The nearest medical care is more than 50 minutes away. Medical care in Sierra Prieta is almost non-existent. That means that the older women must help these young women in labor. It is a sheer miracle that without clean water, sterilized equipment or a clean bed or sterilized clothes to put the newborn in, it is amazing that both mother and child survive in that environment.
But that got me thinking, here in the US. we go to the hospital for the most part with our husbands or a chosen few, having the child in the presence of strangers; doctors and nurses. Throughout the experience, we are mostly alone. There, in birth and death, one is always surrounded by community. While we have many material things, we often lack relationships, with our family, and with our friends. They are poor in stuff, rich in relationship.
There are over 300 verses in Scripture about what God thinks about the poor and needy. 300 is a huge number! It only says to me how great is His compassion for those who are in need. If it is that important to Him, it must be that important to us.
The question that I wrestled with this past week while I've been home is, what is being poor? One definition that I found was as follows: the state or condition of having little or no money, goods, or means of support; condition of being poor.
We often think of poverty in the sense of material things, the state of one's home, their clothing, transportation, education level. We link poverty to "having" little and then we compare it to our living conditions. When we visit a place like Sierra Prietta, it is easy to see poverty. With no running water, limited electricity, no flushable toilets, no air conditioning or showers, we see what little they have.
Poverty goes beyond material wealth. The last part of the definition said condition of being poor. Could it be that each person is needy in some manner? I've heard it said that being poor is a mindset. The people of Sierra Prietta were by no means "poor in spirit". It was quite the opposite. They stood and walked with heads held high, shoulders back, walking with dignity and grace. They may have been without a lot of things that we can say that we have, however they still had a roof over their heads, food on the table, although it by no means measured to what we have. In fact, most of them eat one meal a day and their children are still hungry. There are many places in the world that don't have even that. Unfortunately, we even have families without meals in the United States. Hunger in any country should not exist. I've heard it said it is because of the greed of a few.
Health care is another noticable indicator of poverty. I noticed in one family that there were two babies, both under the age of a year, cousins, I think the mothers were. I began to think that there are girls getting pregnant there under the age of 20, just like in the US. While some are not married and there are needs associated with that, I started thinking about when those babies are born. The nearest medical care is more than 50 minutes away. Medical care in Sierra Prieta is almost non-existent. That means that the older women must help these young women in labor. It is a sheer miracle that without clean water, sterilized equipment or a clean bed or sterilized clothes to put the newborn in, it is amazing that both mother and child survive in that environment.
But that got me thinking, here in the US. we go to the hospital for the most part with our husbands or a chosen few, having the child in the presence of strangers; doctors and nurses. Throughout the experience, we are mostly alone. There, in birth and death, one is always surrounded by community. While we have many material things, we often lack relationships, with our family, and with our friends. They are poor in stuff, rich in relationship.
After the fall of man, no matter where you live, we all are need and lack something. So the question I have been asking myself is not, how can we "fix" all of what they lack, but where do I have poverty in my own soul? For many outside of relationship with others, they lack relationship with our heavenly Father. In the New Testament, a rich man asked Jesus how could he get into heaven. Jesus' response was to leave everything behind. Are we so focused on our things, that our things begin to own us? Things occupy our time, and our energy. My mind goes back to the family that Paul and his friends were building a house for. His most prized possession in his house were the pictures of his family, proudly on display. The ironic thing, was that he wasn't even in any of them.
What is our focus? What do we lack in our own life?
What is our focus? What do we lack in our own life?
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