Does God Allow His Children to Be Poor?
God allows both Christians and non-Christians to experience every form of suffering known to the human race, just as He allows His blessings to fall on both. Poverty, like other forms of suffering, is relative, as Lars and I were reminded while we were in India. Our country's definition of the "poverty level" would mean unimaginable affluence to the girls we saw working next to our hotel. For nine hours a day they carried wet concrete in wooden basins on their heads, pouring it into the forms for the foundation of a large building. They were paid thirty cents a day.
Poverty has not been my experience, but God has allowed in the lives of each of us some sort of loss, the withdrawal of something we valued, in order that we may learn to offer ourselves a little more willingly, to allow the touch of death on one more thing we have clutched so tightly, and thus know fullness and freedom and joy that much sooner. We're not naturally inclined to love God and seek His Kingdom. Trouble may help to incline us- that is, it may tip us over, put some pressure on us, lean us in the right direction.
-Elisabeth Elliot
here's a thought I've been thinking for a couple weeks now:
It seems like the most subversive/countercultural thing to do in our American society is to "embrace" loss. Yet it seems to be what the Kingdom of God is all about. It is in the embrace of a life of downward mobility where one might find persecution in a land of religious freedom. We are taught to fear loss. A life that welcomes displacement is seen as unhealthy, irrisponsible, and even dangerous. Yet I think the call of the Gospel is one of voluntary displacement. How can I claim then to "follow" Christ and still cling to the illusions of security that my society is offering me? Could these be our idols? What are they? If I choose not to bow to them and live a life that challenges them, will I be persecuted?
These are the thoughts/questions that I have been living with for the past few weeks. I will continue to live with them... +++ may the mystery of Christ continue to challenge and transform +++
3 comments:
Hi Eric
I wanted to order some turkey and beef from your farm, but my email was returned as undeliverable. I had sent it to the address in the website to a Kevin.
Please find me the correct person to contact to order. thanks!~
Ma B
MariePendleton@woh.rr.com
Sorry Eric. Apparently I forgot to change my blogger notify email address over, so I didn't see this post (or your comment on mine) until today. At any rate . . .
Yes, this resonates with me. We've been discussing this with our community a lot lately. What is our role in caring for the poor? Should we move to an urban area with broken people we can minister to, or to the country where we will care primarily for our own family and those close friends around us.
I don't know that James and I have any answers yet, but I know one thing. My heart, and everything inside of me is inclined in this direction. I have always said, my goal is to get poorer and poorer, and it seems we are on the right track.
Every time I begin to think we're starting to live modestly, I need only turn on the tv to PBS to be reminded how much, indeed, our cup runneth over.
The special this week was on Mexican immigrants, and how they risk their lives, just to get across the American border for the hope of a better life and a chance at providing for their families back home. The immigrant they followed lived in a one room apartment and was thrilled that he could come home every day to his cot, a window air conditioner and a tiny old tv with bunny ears.
Speaking of getting into trouble . . . we talked about this a couple nights ago with friends and, while they did say that giving has it's place, the primary focus was on accumulating wealth to insure an inheritance for your family and future generations. They talked a lot about how the bible emphasizes an inheritance. It's an interesting concept but the accumulation of wealth, for any reason, is definitely not a natural inclination for James and I.
Oh kelly ... I'm so proud to call you and James "friends". So much in my heart that I want to convey to you...
Our community seems to be coming to the other side of some of these issues.. starting to ask the same questions as your community. I hope we can learn from one another in the process. I do think that in the process of developing a rich common life within a given community, the tendency is to overlook the stranger, in the attention to, and care for, one another. Yet it is our task as citizens of the Kingdom of God to invite and welcome the stranger to the table...
Broken people are everywhere. We are all quite aware of this. And so are the poor, oppressed, and mistreated. Jesus hung out with this crowd in both rural and urban arenas.
I am so thankful for friends who dare to question the dominant society around them.
We are only Christian, so long as we pose critical questions to the dominant society around us... calling everyone we meet to join us, whith a holy unrest, in the search for a New Way... To all who love justice: we call on you to join us in dismantling the principalities and powers of this age.
Post a Comment