(My goal this week is to publish a series of blog posts that look back and chronicle our time at http://www.sosmemphis.org each post will begin with the theme verse for the week: Psalm 102:18-22.)
Let this be written for a future generation, that a people not yet created may praise YHWH: “YHWH looked down from his sanctuary on high, from heaven he viewed the earth, to hear the groans of the prisoners and release those condemned to death.” So the name of YHWH will be declared in Zion and his praise in Jerusalem when the people and the kingdoms assemble to worship YHWH. — Psalm 102:18-2
- Poverty in the US (based on 2007 US Census Bureau data)
- Over 39 million people live in poverty
- Over 13 million children live in poverty
- Over 15 million people live below half the poverty line ($10k/yr for 1 person and $22k/yr for a family of 4)
- ~3.5 million people (1.35 million children) will experience homelessness each year
- 24% of African-American, 21% of Hispanic, and 8% of Caucasian people live in poverty
- Poverty in the world (from http://www.urbanministry.org)
- 50% of the worlds population live on $2.50/day
- ~30k children die every day due to poverty
- ~1 billion people entered the 21st century unable to read a book or sign their names
- 1.1 billion people in developing countries have inadequate access to water, and 2.6 billion people lack basic sanitation
- 121 million children have no access to education
- The poorest 40% of the world’s population accounts for 5% of the global income. The richest 20% of the world’s population accounts for 75% of the global income.
STAGGERING.
Mind-numbing.
Remarkable.
Those are three words that come to my mind when I read those statistics.
That was our devotion on Tuesday.
God wants to see people set free from poverty.
One of the key things learned in this devotional is that I didn’t have a real clear picture of what poverty is, how it impacts Americans, or the rest of the world. Put simply, I (and likely the rest of the team) had no frame of reference.
We have been (by God’s grace) protected from this image. Yet, in the scriptures it is made abundantly clear that God demands us to react to poverty. Some of the passages that we discussed in this devotion were:
- Leviticus 19:9-10
- Proverbs 14:31
- Isaiah 58:6-7
- Jeremiah 22:16
- Matthew 6:3
- James 1:27
- 1 John 3:17-18
Poverty.
I simply can’t imagine it.
I travel the United States week-in and week-out. I’ve seen homeless people begging on the sides of highways in El Paso, TX. I’ve seen racism on the MARTA in Atlanta, GA. I’ve seen children sitting in cardboard boxes in order to stay warm in Denver, CO. Yet, I can’t say that I’ve ever had my eyes opened in a way to make poverty make sense to me. In other words, I had never looked through the eyes of God.
Yet, being in the Binghampton neighborhood in Memphis, and seeing how people struggle to meet basic human needs, seeing how people like Ms. Hanh work to make ends meet and still fall short even though faith abounds, I have a better picture of poverty. I still have VERY FAR to go to truly “get it”.
In our devotional book for Tuesday, we read: “Unfortunately, because of sin, people take too much and are not willing to share their resources with others. But we, as Christians, are called to share God’s concern for the poor and to help set them free from the horrible effects of poverty in the world.”
Set free. Set free to proclaim the name of YHWH.
Re-read the statistics.
We talked in our devotions about Haiti. We discussed how Haiti was set on the course to poverty. It was due largely to an innate (nationalistic) desire to be free. They PAID for their freedom. People gave their entire savings to help the country buy freedom from France. The country gave all they had. So much so that they could no longer meet basic human infrastructure needs (sewer, water, structurally-sound architecture, education). All to say that they were free.
Is your freedom worth that?
Scriptures tell us time and time again that the heart of YHWH is with the poor.
If we truly desire to live in the image of God (as we were created), then we MUST help the poor. I don’t mean that we simply give a few dollars a month to help. I mean we do ALL THAT WE CAN to help the poor. Both in the United States and abroad. In other words, we give up our excess in order to help.
$2.50 a day. That’s the amount that 50% of the world’s population live on. $2.50 per day. Less than the price of a cup of coffee at Starbucks. Think about that. It’s simply….
….STAGGERING.
