Poverty is commonly defined as the
state of being inferior in quality or insufficient in amount, or according to Corbett and Fikkert, poverty is the result of relationships that do
not work, that are not just, that are not for life, that are nor harmonious or
enjoyable. Poverty is the absence of shalom in all its meanings.
Often when we think of someone who is poor we assume it
begins and ends with money. That lack of money is the reason and the solution
to poverty, but it is much more than that. Understanding poverty is not
something most people seek out to understand, but understanding it in the
depths it goes beyond financial stability or instability is crucial.
I am only in the beginning stages of understanding poverty
and the effects and life of it. Often I see people very frustrated with seeing
or experiencing the poverty of others and I included have been frustrated in
similar ways. Yet, the more I seek to understand and learn the veins and
arteries of poverty I am shocked by the binding power and control it has
emotionally, relationally, mentally and physically.
Why am I thinking all of this now?
Over the last few weeks I have again met face to face with a
very real aspect of poverty. I have been seeking to collect signed forms for
our March Break Camp coming up very soon. They are not complicated forms, just
the basic information; name, age, health card number, emergency contact and
such. It has been the rare exception to
receive back a single form that is filled out in completion. Not only that but,
it often involves me handing out over 30 forms in order to get 5 returned from
a list of 20 kids.
Why? Why such a struggle to fill out a registration form and
to get it in by a dead line?
What I don’t always think about when it comes to poverty is
the root reasons for the symptoms that I experience with people. The inability
to follow through with plans or to make commitments is just a symptom of
greater things such as distrust, fear of the unknown, past hurts,
disappointments and protecting one’s self from allowing it to happen again. And
this makes sense when we think of poverty the way it was defined by Fikkert and
Corbett in the book “When helping hurts”. It has far less to
do with money and far more to do with relationship that we so often frequently
think and it begins to make more sense.
The way we view poverty will always effect that way we
approach it. Always! If my conclusion is simply thinking of another person as
lazy I will inevitable treat them in a way that only pushes them into further
poverty of relational distrust and fear. Yes, there are a lot of issues when it
comes to poverty to consider, but consider this. If I choose to view each
person based on their financial state verses their relational state with
themselves, God, nature and others I will treat them in every opposing ways. Money
is a big issue, but a greater issue is how people understand God’s view of
them, their own opinion, the opinion of others around them and the world they
are living in. And if I am able to understand this within myself and in others
the way I approach things begins to have the ability to restore these things
within myself and in others.
Resources about poverty: (because this stuff isn’t all
coming from me).
“When helping hurts”
by Corbett and Fikkert
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