Living in the Spirit
August 31, 2015
Scripture Reading: Proverbs 22:1-2, 8-9, 22-23
A good name is to be chosen rather than great riches, and favor is better than silver or gold. The rich and the poor have this in common the Lord is the maker of them all.
Do not rob the poor because they are poor, or crush the afflicted at the gate; for the Lord pleads their cause and despoils of life those who despoil them. –Proverbs 22:1-2, 22-23
My mother was a life-long champion of the poor. Even in her dementia when she was 95+ she kept wanting me to do something about the little boys who lived “back there” who had no one caring for them and were hungry. I always assumed it was a family with which she had worked in West Virginia during the depression whose desperation still haunted her. I finally had to tell her the children were being fed to set her heart at peace. It should come as no surprise having been raised by my mother, I learned to recognize the poor as just people like everyone else. It is an important realization for it alters one’s perception of people trying to see the Christ in everyone.
Because I worked primarily with poor women, I had a relative who would go out of her way to find me at every family gathering to tell me bad things about women who were having babies just to get welfare. I truly doubt if she really knew any of them. Watching and condemning someone with several children paying for her groceries with food stamps is not knowing them. Did you know that many of the members of our armed services who have families must supplement their incomes with food stamps?
No one who works full time at any job should earn less than a living wage—no one. No child should advance through our public school system without the education he or she needs to support themselves—no child.
Prayer: Lord open our eyes to see you in everyone. Amen.