thoughts on poverty
3 June 2009
why is it that the only things that seem to be resonating with me are passionate piano interludes and ferocious screamo choruses? why do i feel as if everything else doesn’t even come close to harmonizing with my heart?
And Here’s your escape as
He Calls out your name,
you fall to your knees
and answer his call.
But Here’s your escape,
He calls out your name, you fall to your knees,
and answer His call.
Lord I will be anything for you.
as we gathered together yesterday for our youth development team meeting, i anticipated a normal orientation time. surprisingly enough, and not intentionally by any means, our team got into this ridiculous (ridiculous being positive) discussion that totally rocked my world. it is always wonderful when i have an experience here that allows me to see the urban community (regardless of what specific community) through the eyes of those who were raised in such a community and have lived there for an extended amount of time. i have no room to talk or think i know anything about the city, seeing as i’m just a white boy who was raised in typical suburbia, and so i love learning in hopes of some day being a part of this wonderful city community. yesterday’s meeting was one of these learning moments. we were supposed to be learning about incident reports, or something of the like, but through a few different conversation sparkers, our team entered into a time of chewing on what poverty means. intriguing, and exactly what i had been waiting for. again, the perception of poverty through the eyes of those who come from the city (and potentially low income backgrounds) is radically different that that from a suburbianite, and (i feel) reflects strongly on what Jesus lays out as truly important in our lives.
welfare and health care hold a lot of weight for me only because everytime i hear someone debating the need (or lack thereof) for either and how inadequate (or adequate) the programs are, i can’t help but have this thought of “holy crap, to be discussing the ability of a government (or any entity at that) to provide anything even in the realm of health care is absolutely phenomenal! health care and similar programs are so beyond simple needs (though they are fantastic things) that such an obsession gives complete testament to how much we truly have. what would it be like if what we were fighting for (in or out of the government) was simply three meals a day?”. and this is not a random statement…it is essential for the beginning of the conversation. one of the guys who was raised in this community said, “before welfare came along, we [the family unit] were the child support”. that was so powerful!
that sparked all kinds of thoughts on what true poverty is, and what our values should be. is it sufficient to see poverty as simply monetary? i strongly argue that it is not. some of the overall conclusions that our group came to was that we are rich in our values, our families, and our community; money does not matter. and even then, people who are living in a low income situation sometimes do not even see themselves as poor because the see what truly matters (there was a reason why Jesus was homeless). on the flip side, monetarily rich people can be just as poor as the most desolate homeless man if they have bad family issues, a deserted spiritual life, and an absorption in materialism.
what would happen if suburbia focused on family values as much as the communities who are viewed as poor do? and as we often remember the Christmas but not the presents five years later, how much of a testament is that to the importance of community compared to material things? what will it take to have complete humility, stripped of everything, especially anything that conforms to this world of material? there is an ultimate sense of freedom in ridding yourself of the things that we often view as necessary, because we soon come to find that those things are not anywhere close to necessary.
ben
“some people think that the roses and daises are beautiful…only because they’ve never seen you”
Interesting to think about. This reminds me of our health care debate in AP Gov. How I wish we could go back and talk about this… People would have laughed at us. But then again, that’s pretty normal for how people viewed us in that class I feel like. Haha!
I was reading the guest-list that Lisa Ho made on Facebook for the Covenant House luncheon as I am a former OWU alum and am currently serving homeless youth with Covenant House.
I do not know you and so I clicked on your name to see what year you were and a few clicks later I’m on an issue about poverty, which quickly sparked my interest.
I believe you are absolutely correct with poverty not being directly correlated with money. Indeed some money is needed to meet the basic necessities of life, but there is also an assumption that being poor means a low level of happiness in life. However, as more people are beginning to learn, those with an abundance of items and money often have large problems of their own.
Through sacrifice one finds compassion and through simple living, poverty is better understood. I am not dirt poor myself but for the kids I have chosen to give up my cell phone, my car and many of my possessions. Although monetarily poorer than ever, I am incredibly rich in spirit and I am finding that my friendships and relationships with others are continuing to grow because I spend more time interacting with others due to a lack of money or possessions, which goes right along with the community aspect that you referred to when speaking about lower income societies and families. They may do so out of necessity but placing more value in people than possessions is part of what I think a successful life entails.
A wise person once said “Live simply so that others may simply live.” I think that is a great motto. When we start making sacrifices, we realize how much we have to give and how well we can operate (and even thrive) without everything bogging us down.
Take care man and God Bless.
-Josh