President Carter identified a hole in our society, defined by poverty, human suffering, and inequality. He sees a world unraveling at an alarming rate as the rick get richer and the poor get poorer, creating greater and greater social and international disparity and isolation. Bono sees a hole too—in our morality. He sees the world’s poor, beaten and bloody, lying at the wayside, while the majority of us pass by without stopping. Either way you look at it, there is a hole that needs to be repaired—and it’s getting deeper (pg 105).
As you get into this section of the book, are you starting to wonder how the world could be so messed up, so broken and consequently devastating the most vulnerable (i.e. 26,500 children dying a day of preventable diseases, pg 107)?
Have you ever wondered why the rich get richer and the poor get poorer? How would you answer this question and how does it relate to you personally?
Stearns claims that, …it is easier for us to ignore the world’s poorest because they are “over there” (pg 99). At this point I thought, “What about the poor in our midst?” Is there a relationship between the way we address local poverty and our initiative toward global poverty? How does involvement in issues of social justice and caring for the poor affect our global perspective?
The love of Jesus Christ was so profound because he…”Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness.” Philippians 2:5-7
Stearn explains that, we have the awareness, access and ability to reach out to our most desperate neighbors around the world…This is truly good news—or is it” Stearn is getting to a good point here…our tools and skills are only as useful as the heart of the people willing to employ them. Sometimes I feel like we’re missing it. All through graduate school (I studied public health with a concentration in international health) I wrestled with the nagging suspicion that all the science and best programming in the world is not going to solve the brokenness.
I am refreshed by the way Lewis Smedes emphasizes the healing power in us through the gift of Christ on the cross. Because we have access to the power of true love we are moved in kindness toward people in need…”The pity that wells up in us after watching a television documentary on starving children is not kindness. Kindness is the strength to take the starving child in your arms and feed it at your own breast. Kindness is the power to heal a leper by washing his wounds.” He goes on to say, “If we leave the work of kindness to professionals, kindness will be replaced by efficiency. Love will be lost and welfare will take its place.”
Stearn moves on to consider how we as wealthy Americans perceive the poor and makes an important point that…Perhaps the greatest mistake commonly made by those who strive to help the poor is the failure to see the assets and strengths that are always present in people and communities no matter how poor they are. (pg 128)
In the book When Helping Hurts, Steve Corbett and Brian Fikkert unpack the deeper dimensions of our concept of poverty and it’s implications in how we work for poverty alleviation. They address the difficult truth that the “economically rich often have “god-complexes,” a subtle and unconscious sense of superiority in which they believe that they have achieved their wealth through their own efforts and that they have been anointed to decide what is best for low-income people, whom they view as inferior to themselves…The way that we act toward the economically poor often communicates—albeit unintentionally—that we are superior and they are inferior. In the process, we hurt the poor and ourselves.
My view of the poor was challenged in a recent conversation with a pastor from our church who is from Togo and who had to flee his country almost ten years ago during civil unrest. He said to me that the mystery of God’s kingdom is that what is required of the wealthy is also required of the poor—to give everything. We then looked at the example of the widow who gave her only two mites. “He also saw a poor widow put in two very small copper coins. "I tell you the truth," he said, "this poor widow has put in more than all the others. All these people gave their gifts out of their wealth; but she out of her poverty put in all she had to live on." Luke 21:2-4
Does he require something different of you then of the widow with two mites? “He has showed you, O man, what is good. And what does the LORD require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.” Micah 6:8 We are on the same playing field here and we need the poor just as they need the wealthy. How then do we engage the “web and the spiders” in light of the Gospel? I defer to a friend working in Kenya right now who recently wrote a reflection entitled Reconciliation…
In the bible it talks about how every tribe, tongue, and nation will be rejoicing together in heaven. And when I think of reconciliation, I don’t think it applies to just races and nations, but includes every relationship. Often times, this perfect union seems so far off and I question whether it is even possible. Our differences can be so divisive. It’s hard work to pursue reconciliation and often leads to frustration and further distance. But every once in awhile I get a little taste of this type of rejoicing and it is good. It’s good when people from different cultures, backgrounds, and races come together because of Christ. For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross. Colossians 1:19-20 He is the pathway to reconciliation. I’ve felt this in Kenya and it has given me hope…Reconciliation leads to a better way of doing life. It leads to the unity of people that benefits the community, church, family, and pretty much everyone involved.
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