a few thoughts about life and the poor

Hmmm....the last thing I should be doing is BLOGGING right now! It's 10 a.m., my kids are running around doing who-knows-what, the baby is waking up, laundry is waiting for me, and the kitchen - well, let's just say that it's waiting for me too. No wonder I'm blogging. :)

Let's talk about the tooth fairy for a minute. I'm good at a lot of things as a mom. I feed my children, they are usually appropriately dressed, and I haven't lost any of them (yet). But there is one area in which I have almost NEVER succeeded as a mother - leaving the tooth fairy gifts in a timely fashion. I'm not kidding - it's like the same tape played over and over again. My children joyfully lose a tooth, I congratulate them, they repeatedly talk about how the tooth fairy is going to visit that p.m., and then I forget until the following a.m. when they wonder why she failed to visit them! This a.m. was the same story. Luke lost one of his front teeth last p.m. - this, I'm sure you would agree, is one of the most important teeth to receive recognition for. They ALL know I stink at my job, so he was giving me the not-so-subtle obligatory reminder before bed. I forgot again. This a.m. I was frantically running around trying to sneak a dollar under his pillow and getting McKenna to write him a note. I told her that I hope she's a better tooth fairy than I am someday. At my funeral, my kids will still be laughing about how I was the worst tooth fairy ever - I just hope none of them are in therapy....

Here's one thing I think I'm beginning to see about the "poor". Maybe I'm thinking about it because Christmas is "just around the corner." I think what actually triggered this thought process was a women's Bible study that I'm a part of right now. I was flipping ahead and noticing that Proverbs 31 was "broken down" as the woman talked about running our homes. The verse that talks about opening her arms to the poor and extending her hands to the needy was listed with all the other verses, but there doesn't appear to be any explanation about how to do that. Now, in all fairness, I haven't seen the video for that week so she may talk about it more than it appears in the notes that I already have. But the only discussion I see about the poor in the whole study is in a comment later about doing an outreach in your neighborhood, having each person bring a toy for the needy (which will be distributed later). Here's what I'm realizing. The poor in America really don't need our stuff (One of the poorest families I've ever met in Como (this was a few years ago) had more clothes in their tiny apartment than I've probably ever owned in my lifetime). They need us. They actually need our arms and our hands. They need relationship with us. In that relationship, we will naturally discover what the actual physical needs are because often there are many. But I think the church in America has gotten into the comfortable habit of alleviating our guilt for ignoring the poor by buying a bunch of gifts, dumping them on their doorsteps, and then never seeing them again. I know - I used to do this all the time. This is not to say that things like Angel Tree and organized giving projects like this do not have their place (we're actually doing a big Angel Tree thing this year in our cell/church and the coordinators of this project have done a phenomenal job of organizing this and are helping many churches build relationship with the families of prisoners). Certainly, they do benefit people. But if we stop there and never build any relationship, we have failed miserably. But there is a good reason for ignoring the Prov 31 description of the woman who opens her arms and extends her hands - the verse implies that we have to TOUCH people (literally and figuratively) and this is messy, inconvenient, and hard. Even now, living in the middle of the "poor", I find myself still maintaining a "healthy"distance sometimes because if I get too involved, I have to DO something. :) I think for me, another reason that I used to do nothing was because I just didn't know where to start or how to build these kind of relationships. I think this is true of so many believers - they want to help, but the thought of where to begin is overwhelming. Just go somewhere where people are involved with and serving the poor. Pray that God will show you. This is a prayer He will answer quickly - His heart is for the poor. Randy preached a sermon a few months ago and pointed out that we have to go to them - not many are going to come knocking on our doors for this relationship.

I don't know why I'm writing about this - I think it's that when you've been in one social class your whole life, you tend to make judgments/assumptions about the ones of which you're not a part (upper, middle, and lower classes ALL do this). I guess this is just one of many of mine that is being shattered as I'm just seeing the tip of the iceburg of what Jesus means when He says to love the poor. Sometimes I wish we could ignore this part of God's Word (but it's such a darn BIG part)! But my last word has to be GRACE, GRACE, GRACE! We're all on a journey to see the heart of Christ and He's so merciful and gracious to us! Praise Him for His goodness!

Gotta go! My sweet people are hungry and letting me know about it!