God and Poverty

This week, Bro. Bo Sanchez asks his readers this basic question: Why so much God and poverty in country?

For details of his blog entry, please check out this link.

http://bosanchez.ph/"why-so-much-god-and-poverty"/.

I would like to join in pondering that question.

My simplest answer to this is: It is not because of God but our misconceptions of God that contributes to poverty.

We wrongfully believe about God’s preferential love for the poor, so poor we want to be. We wrongfully believe that God blesses the poor, so we prefer to live as such. We wrongfully believe that it is better for a camel to pass through the eye of the needle than for rich people to enter heaven, so rich we never wish to be. We wrongfully believe the lesson of that rich man who died in his sleep after stocking on so many riches, so we subconsciously avoid that.

Our main belief system supports the idea that if we want to be close to God, then we have to be poor.

Whereas I personally believe that there are indeed a collective and truly few - “poor” people around us, all of us are called to be “rich” as well. We all heard about inspiring stories of rag-dirt poor people rising from their poverty to become rich people in their own right. Simply put, both statures can be appreciated as heavenly calling.

Luke 12:33 - Sell your belongings and give alms. Provide money bags for yourselves that do not wear out, an inexhaustible treasure in heaven that no thief can reach nor moth destroy.

Luke 3:11 - He said to them in reply, "Whoever has two cloaks should share with the person who has none. And whoever has food should do likewise."

Matthew 5:42 - Give to the one who asks of you, and do not turn your back on one who wants to borrow.

Surely these bible verses were not addressed to the poor people but to us who were given the opportunities to alleviate the conditions of the poor people.

And if these verses are meant for us, then God meant us to prosper and be generous stewards of His rich and abundant blessings.

Matthew 25:40 - And the king will say to them in reply, 'Amen, I say to you, whatever you did for one of these least brothers of mine, you did for me.'

Yes, at the end of time, the Lord will judge us in accordance to our actions and responses to the needs of the poor and needy. So what have we really done to ease the situation of the poor?

Notice also that I use the word “contribute” and not “cause” because there are indeed so many other contributing factors to our country’s poverty. But whereas it is easiest for us to point to other factors like poor leadership, corrupt government, alleged church interventions (though I don’t subscribe to this viewpoint), poor economic fundamentals, lack of nationalism, wanting for peace and order, the often over-looked factor is our very own selves – our attitude and effort.

Haven’t we noticed that those who are pessimistic about the prospects of our country are mostly those who are passive as well? In contrast, those who are contributing to our nation-building collectively and as an individual are those with more positive outlook and hope for our country. If you think I am pulling your leg, then try talking to a Gawad-Kalinga member or a striving entrepreneur and see for yourself what a positive frame of mind can do to help poverty. These people exemplifies the correct attitude and the right effort to be one of the answer to poverty rather than someone who just questions it.

So the challenge question for us remains – Are we going to be part of those who build or those who just whines and retreats? Are we going to help the poor by striving to be better ourselves or do we just keep questioning God’s presence in it all?

Will I be God’s hand or just a man’s mouth?

The answer and decision is in each one of us.

[acknowledment - Smoky mountain photo taken from Jan Fleiter’s Flickr site]