poverty

what is poverty?

when i was asked that question, i gave an answer that is probably relatively normal for most americans. poverty is the lack of things, not having enough money for food, not having access to clean water, no shelter, homeless, no job, no shoes. no stuff. lack of things.

depending on how you define poverty, you will attempt to alleviate it in different ways. if i think poverty is strictly a lack of material possessions, why would i do anything more about it besides give some money, buy some food, or help build a house?

but what if theres more to it than that?

if poverty were so simple as to be constrained to a one dimensional problem like lack of material goods, the solution would be simple. more goods. give money, give things, and problem solved right?

experience says no. something must be wrong with the solution. but deeper than that, something is wrong with the definition.

poverty is so much more than a lack of "stuff." yes, poverty is a lack of certain items, but it is also a lack of hope or a lack of opportunity. a lack of relationships. looking at poverty through the lens of american materialism causes you to fail to see humans' need for love, acceptance, confidence, hope, relationships, and so much more. if i want to begin to help address material poverty, i must see the entire poverty of being, and must come from a place of humility in recognition my own poverty. i may not have the same material absence, but i certainly am not rich emotionally or spiritually.

Maybe that's what makes this problem so difficult.

Shadows

change. if there is anything in this world that is constant, it is the the presence on that which is not constant. we change. things around us change. we change because things around us change. that is what this world is like.

but He does not. He does not change like shifting shadows. 

Shadows of an object can shift in two ways--by the object moving and changing itself, or by the source of light casting that shadow changing. so some changes of that shadow are in control of the object. Some are entirely outside of it's control.

Yet God doesn't change in either way. He is constant. He does not change himself. There is nothing outside of his control that could possibly change Him. He is the one thing in this world that remains.

James 1:17