Poverty

When you hear the word you automatically assume. You have this vision of what this type of person will look like, what he will act like, and even the things he might say. You picture a dirty old man or a child with no shoes. A house that is run down or a car that is barely running. People lined up at the soup kitchen looking for a warm meal or a family as they lay their head down at night, not on a pillow but on the ground beneath them. POVERTY. These are the images that you envision when you hear this word. As I look around me, sitting in a coffee shop in Newport beach, I do not see what YOU might call poverty but I see a poverty that is much deeper and heart breaking. STUFF. It consumes the human race and as I look around me I see a race that is completely wrapped up in what they have and what they do not have. This is poverty. You may be thinking, well what do you mean that is poverty? These people have everything they could ever want? They are not hungry, they have shelter, how are they poor? As look around I see eyes full of emptiness. I hear silence as people sit alone aimlessly zoned into whatever gadget they have lying before them. Friendly is not a word I think these people have heard. I over hear conversations between teenage girls and my heart aces. As C.S. Lewis would say, they are men without chests. That is what I mean when I say I see poverty. You see the world has tricked you into thinking that only those without stuff are poor. But the poor that I see in these people is far greater then the obvious “poor”. They are lost, living outside of any moral code. Maybe they know of love but you do not see love when you look into their eyes. A kind word would be asking far too much from them because after all they are “busy”. To sit and have a conversation with someone you do not know would be considered weird, so forget about sharing what is going on in your life and making a new friend. It is simply heart breaking. That people have become so consumed with stuff that they are too “busy” for real deep relationship. They work, not because they love what they do but mostly because they need money so they can have more stuff. The purpose in life is to discover your gift. The meaning of life is to give that gift away. Nowhere in that, the purpose or meaning, does it say work a lot so you can have “stuff”. Relationships flourish when someone is living their life to give away their gift but they wither away when you keep your gift to yourself. I am not saying that all people with stuff are poor in spirit or that all of those with out are full of love but what I am saying is that poverty is much more then the one definition the world gives it. Poverty of the soul is far greater than poverty of stuff. So choose to be rich in the spirit. To love all those who enter your life and those you come in contact with each day. Build relationships, even if with complete strangers. Take the time to invest in those around you instead of the next biggest stock. When you pass from this life to the next you cannot take your stuff or job with you but the love you leave behind will always remain.