I believe that poverty is the root of many of our social
problems in our world. I read this
article today on one person's story of her temporary poverty (click the blue to read) and found some very complex and at the same time simple reflections on the
circumstance of poverty.
“Circumstance” of poverty.
That is strong language.
I have spent time on a reservation and I have seen poverty
and the many faces of people who are living through their circumstance. I know people who have had really well-paying
jobs who have been laid off during the winter months and then the market
changed and they were not called back for over a year who have lived through
their circumstance. I am a person who
chose, with her spouse, to live on a single full-time income throughout their
marriage and had that single job go missing for a time and have lived through
our circumstance. I have heard stories
of grandparents and parents who are desperately trying to help their poverty-stricken
or disabled family by simply getting what is needed at the grocery store with
their SNAP card—not for themselves, but for the people they care for—hoping to
provide something good, in the form of help, with love, as they manage that
circumstance. I have a friend who works
multiple jobs to provide for her child, struggling to make ends meet, and
surviving through her circumstance. I
see senior citizens continue to work or who have to learn systems and swallow
their pride because a dollar does not do what a dollar did when they were
preparing for their retirement circumstance.
I know fellow seminary students who are following their call so
conscientiously that it is affecting their circumstance.
We do not know why someone is in poverty. We cannot assume that the things they have,
like the writer of the article’s Mercedes, are luxuries or necessities. We cannot deny little pleasures, like a
birthday party for a child or a bottle of pop when we do not know the
circumstance of their need.
Yes, our systems can sometimes be misused, our programs
misguided, our processes unmanageable, but when we look at poverty, not as a
way of living, but as a circumstance, perhaps we can begin to look with more
compassion and find better ways to show each person that their circumstance
does not make them less of a child of God.