The poor you will always have with you...

Lately I have been struggling with our country's perception of poverty and injustice. In Matthew 26:11, Jesus speaks the words in the title of this post. It is repeated from Deuteronomy 15:11 in which the Lord commands us to be openhanded towards our brothers and the poor and needy in your land. I searched the bible for the word "poor" and found over 100 scriptures on this matter. A few that struck me were:

1 Samuel 2:7-The LORD sends poverty and wealth; he humbles and he exalts.He raises the poor from the dust and lifts the needy from the ash heap; he seats them with princes and has them inherit a throne of honor. "For the foundations of the earth are the LORD's; upon them he has set the world.
Matthew 19:21Jesus answered, "If you want to be perfect, go, sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me."
James 2:5Listen, my dear brothers: Has not God chosen those who are poor in the eyes of the world to be rich in faith and to inherit the kingdom he promised those who love him?

I know the bible repeats the message the God loves the poor and that the poor will receive justice. And yet my heart was broken today by how opposed the world is to this message of giving.

Many of you know I arranged for Invisible Children to have an assembly at our school. IC is an amazing organization whose sole purpose is to raise awareness to the conflict in Uganda, involving Joseph Kony forcing children to be soldiers. The county I work in has a policy in which organizations can not come into schools to solicit money from students (makes sense, students are there for an education). IC showed this amazing video to my school about how students their age raised money for kids in Uganda to have a new school. The students who raised the most money then got to visit Uganda to see first hand the poverty and injustice these kids face everyday. The movie was heartbreaking and eye opening.

Students at my school were so outraged and touched that they immediately came to me and to the student services office to see what they could do to help. The wanted to start a club, they wanted to bring awareness and to raise money if possible. My schools' response???
"Miss Neff, we are disappointed that you would bring an organization in to our school to solicit money from our students." Ouch. So much for what we teach our kids in the classroom about community service and giving back to this world.

I know I shouldn't be surprised (maybe many of you guessed that reaction before I wrote it). But frankly I am sad and angered by this response and the apathy of Americans in general. I realize we have problems of our own in the U.S. But does that excuse us from acknowledging the reality of what is happening in the rest of the world? Does it give us permission to squash the drive of students wishing to making a difference, to be apart of changing the world? Many times people I have spoken to don't even want to know about conflicts in other parts of the world. They state,"I can't watch that video, it will make me sad"or "What can I do?" And to be fair to that question, I don't have all the answers. Jesus even acknowledged, again, that the poor will always be with us. But even though I may not have all the answers, I am pretty sure ignorance and or denial of the poor is not the solution.

I feel like Habakkuk, "How long, O LORD, must I call for help, but you do not listen? Or cry out to you, "Violence!" but you do not save? Why do you make me look at injustice? Why do you tolerate wrong? Destruction and violence are before me; there is strife, and conflict abounds."

Sorry for this long rant but I pray, you and I, can be part of the solution. One person can matter. I think of the story of a little boy walking on the beach. There are hundreds of starfish washed up on the shore. He began to throw them one by one into the ocean. Someone saw what he was doing and told him it was pointless, that there were too many to save, that is wouldn't make a difference. Throwing another starfish into the sea, the boy responded, "It makes a difference to this one."

I'm starting to understand purpose in going to Tanzania, if nothing else jit is to show that I care. And I hope that maybe others will be inspired to step out to serve others as well.

Love,
Jess

Proverbs 22:2Rich and poor have this in common: The LORD is the Maker of them all.