A Closer Look at Poverty - part 2 of 2

What is poverty?

The first time I remember being asked this question was during my summer experience living in inner-city Milwaukee in 2009.  It was there and then that my direction in life took a huge detour and I haven't changed course since.  I went to the University of Wisconsin for a Viola-Performance degree, kind of without thought.  I graduate high school.  I go to college.  Pick something I like or I'm good at.  Find a job in that field.  Do that the rest of my life.  Have you ever made a whirlpool with friends when you went swimming?  Everybody walks/runs/swims in a circle in the same direction for a couple minutes until the water's momentum picks up.  Then on the count of three, everyone turns around and tries to swim in the other direction and its difficult to make any forward progress.  Coming out of high school, I went with the flow of expectations I received from the people around me, those friends and family that spoke influence into my life.  I just sort of swam in the same direction as those around me.  It was comfortable.  It made it easy to feel like I was doing to right and normal thing when I saw that most others around were doing the same thing, seeing life through similar lenses.

My junior year of college will go down as the year God changed my course, had me switch my direction from the majority around me.  After a spring break to Panama City Beach, FL with a Christian organization on campus, God gave me the desire to sign up for a summer project in Milwaukee.  It was close to home and I'd at least feel somewhat at home.  Haha.  I look back and smile at how wrong my thoughts were.  I realized I knew nothing about Milwaukee, nothing about its people, nothing about the material poverty, nothing about the segregation, nothing.  It was at City On A Hill (a former hospital) where we stayed for the summer.  "How would you define poverty?"  "People that don't have much money, food, clothes, etc.?"  That entire summer, we focused more on the fact that everyone is spiritually poor.  Let me explain.  Due to the fact that everybody is a sinner, everybody is spiritually poor.  If I look at my brother on the street who has much less than me and somehow assume I'm more spiritually healthy than he then I am dead wrong and very unhealthy.  Do you remember the parable from Luke 9 about the Pharisee and the tax collector?  "To some who were confident of their own righteousness and looked down on everybody else, Jesus told this parable: “Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood up and prayed about himself: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other men—robbers, evildoers, adulterers—or even like this tax collector.  I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.’ “But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, ‘God, have mercy on me, a sinner.’ “I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.”
If you answered the question "What is poverty?" with words describing material depravity, let me show you your ignorance in a loving and kind way like mine was shown to me a couple years back.  Here are a couple samples of how the materially poor have described their situations.

"For a poor persdon everything is terrible--illness, humiliation, shame.  We are cripples; we are afraid of everything; we depend on everyone.  No one needs us.  We are like garbage that everyone wants to get rid of."   -Moldova

"When I don't have any food to bring my family, I borrow, mainly from neighbors and friends.  I feel ashamed standing before my children when I have nothing to help feed the family.  I'm not well when I'm unemployed.  It's terrible."  -Guinea-Bissau

"During the past two years we have not celebrated any holidays with others.  We cannot afford to invite anyone to our house and we feel uncomfortable visiting others without bringing a present.  The lack of contact leaves one depressed, creates a constant feeling of unhappiness, and a sense of low self-esteem."  -Latvia

"When one is poor, she has no say in public, she feels inferior.  She has no food, so there is famine in her house; no clothing, and no progress in her family."  -Uganda

"The poor have a feeling of powerlessness and an inability to make themselves heard."  -Cameroon

Do you hear their words?  Have you ever felt like nobody needs you?  Have you been in situations where you feel there is no way out?  If you remember from part 1 of 2, the welfare system helps provide for those specific people who are of low-income and can't provide for themselves.  However, this system with good intentions also is pretty dynamic in keeping these people in poverty.  You might judge like I once did and say that government handouts make these people lazy and create dependence, therefore justifying your own lack of concern for these people (poverty of the heart).  We can't blame people for a broken system penalizes people for working by taking away benefits for every dollar they earn.

Since my summer in Milwaukee, my eyes have looked at materially poor people with new eyes, ones that judge less and are concerned more for their hearts.  Don't get me wrong, I had nothing to do with this course change in my life and I hope that God can do in your heart what he has done in mine and that is, showing me his love for his children and his creation, humbling me to see I'm no better than the drug-dealers, the prostitutes, the high-school dropouts, and by being present with me every step of the way, even when my own selfishness and pride attempt to mess up his plan.

Living in Brentwood has been awesome and the relationships we've built with the kids, the teachers, the parents, and the neighbors have been awesome.  I wish I knew more better words to describe my experiences.  For those of you curious about what my plans are for after the internship...tune in next week.  Or, if you want to know sooner, call me.