More Emerging Thoughts...Yuppies and the Poor

Back to the notion of caring for the poor and what that looks like, who does it, and what about those yuppies of the world?

The comment that got me thinking more was, "yeah, but what about the yuppies of the world? God wants them too! And THEY may never go into the gutters...and if Jesus is only there, they will never meet Him!"

Reading this comment elicited a couple of thoughts:

• Absolutely God wants the yuppies too..which leads to the next thought...
• The poor are not just the poor physically, but also those who may be quite satisfied (so they think) with their life, thank you very much, but are decidedly missing something that every latest techno gadget, newer, bigger and better can't satisfy. They are poor in a different way. Although, with the mortgage crisis, they may also become monetarily poor as they now have homes worth far less than what they owe on their mortgage...
• These poor in spirit present a unique challenge, because they believe in the illusion that they are in control (believe me, I know, I was there for years) and don't perceive a need for getting to know Jesus.
• I shared my frustration a while back with a friend that I don't really fit in in my neighborhood. I live in a nice hood, but people don't come out and mingle much, and the homes get bigger, fancier, more more and that is where the rub is for me. The excess is what distresses me. It is that question of "do you really need the newest, biggest, best, replacement whatever when the original wasn't even worn out" because of the difference that could make in someone living in abject poverty's life. Kind of like the question of if you spent the money on the tummy tuck on the poor (or the bag of oreos) caring for them, well...
• I think there's a balance here. It's OK for me to put new carpet in my daughter's room (especially when the old is totally gross) but I don't want to do that at the exclusion and expense of making sure someone elses' needs are being met.
• We did some Christmas shopping yesterday. Our church has adopted some really needy families. The nine year old girl in that family doesn't have much. She is physically poor, but also perhaps poor in spirit. Hopefully reaching out to her will touch both.

Can not the poor in spirit also be those who are living without gentleness, self control, love, joy, peace, kindness goodness and gentleness? Isn't another label for that group the oppressed?

I think those are the poor I am thinking about the most, those that are oppressed in some way or another, and that isn't limited by their demographics or socio economic status...

How many wealthy people do you know who are poor spiritually?

If you are a committed Christian, are you living in what Dan Kimball refers to as "the Christian bubble?" That came up in our prayer meeting with the founder of HUF (Hand Up Foundation) the other night. He remarked that he didn't know any (or many) non-Christians, and those are who we are to share the love of Christ with. And that churned in him a spirit of Holy Discontent. I, on the other hand, know lots of people who don't know Jesus (yet) and I am to love them. Really love them. So that includes my neighbor's whose consumerism makes me ill at times (and who at other times I viewed with more than a sprinkle of righteous indignation, shame on me!). So he radically changed his life.

That is transformation. And God is blessing it.

Peace.

Busted by Nicole...

Yesterday I was busted by Nicole in my purge and prune efforts. And here's the progress. We both handled it with much grace.

We went to HUF (Hand Up Foundation) to drop off an entire car load of recycling, mine plus a friend's. It was alarming to see how much waste just two families generated in a relatively short period of time, I think it may have only been a couple of weeks. And my friend didn't even include paper...

After we dropped off the recycling we went upstairs to shop for a skirt for Tianna, who has a manners mixer on Monday. She doesn't own a skirt...and we didn't find one at HUF either.

What we, no excuse me, Nicole did find, however were three items that I had previously purged from our home that she wasn't ready to part with but probably wouldn't have missed had she not come nose to nose with them. Ugh. Busted.

So what did I do? Since I had barrelled on ahead and disposed of her stuff without permission (I violated her boundaries) I did what any unreasonably reasonable mother would do and bought them back. No fighting, no arguing, a simple apology and acknowledgment that I had crossed the line.

What line have you crossed lately?

Purging and Pruning Continued...

Wow! Look at that storage room now! There are still some bins I need to go through, but that can wait. And here was what I hauled off to HUF today. It was a mix of recycling and more bins of donations. It felt SO good to drop it off there and know it would support valuable programs.

I will note that the day and therefore the week did not start off all that well. While I was waiting with Tianna for her bus with the car off and radio and lights on (for like three minutes) my battery died...Howie had left already, and my cell phone was in the kitchen. So I trucked up my hill in my jammies )at least I had slippers on...called Howie and he came to my rescue. Now I have to put "check car battery" on this week's list...big sigh.

Today's Update!

We all survived today, and I even managed to eat! (Well, OK, I never have a problem with that...) But by the time 4:00 p.m. arrived, I was running about fifteen minutes behind...Because I promised, here's how the day panned out"

• HUF was amazing. So many ideas, so much vision, so much happening. So privileged to be a part of it.
• Meeting with our Ministry Director was an hour late, but we managed to cover the highlights over the most wonderful grilled chicken salad at the OIP. Right now I have too many ideas...
• Nicole went to ride bikes with a friend after school and happily went off to cheering practice.
• I met Matt for his MRI and preliminary findings suggested ligament tears the question is, will it require surgery...but the dye injection didn't hurt, he said it was more of a pain to hold his arm still in an awkward position. My mother had some leftover Valium from her MRI that she was happy to share. I told people we were running a special on MRI's in our family this week.
• Tianna is healthy, and we accomplished the requisite paperwork. A tear slid down her cheek when she found out she needed two shots. I hated shots too.
• Matt finished his internship paperwork today, yeah! but still needs a place to live.

Time for bed...