How We View the Poor

One of the things we will make a priority with our church is serving our community, and specifically the poor/oppressed. I was reading an article by Mark Buchanan called Wreck the Roof about the ways they've had to change their focus as a church in order to really reach out to the needy and came across a great quotation. He is talking about a program they do where they give backpacks with school supplies to the children of single parents. Before they begin he meets with the volunteers from his church and here is what he tells them.

"Today, you are Christ's voice, his hands, his feet, his eyes, his heart. If these people see Jesus, it will be in you. And, like Christ, we are doing more than rendering a service. We are loving them as ourselves. We are not just serving, but having Jesus' attitude--being in very nature servants.

"Life and circumstances, and ofthen their own bad choices, have taken many things from these people. But what each of them needs most today is not clothes or a new backpack or an oil change. We can give all those things and fail to give the one thing needed, or even worse: we might give all those gifts with one hand, and with the other strip them further of the one thing needed.

"The one thing needed is dignity. It is their sense of being loved and worth loving. It is their sense of their infinite value in the eyes of God, and in the eyes of God's people. If we give all those other things today but don't give them dignity, we fail. Today, give the one thing needed. Today, we host kings and queens, princes and princesses. Let us act accordingly."

I nearly cry every time I read the last two sentences. So often we see the poor as projects at best and a nuisance at worst. If we serve them with that attitude we will do more to push them down then to give them a hand.

Once in Denver I pulled up to a stoplight and there was a man begging on the corner. I rolled down my window and here's how our conversation went.

"Hello."
"Hello"
"What's your name?"
"My name's Abraham."
"Hi Abraham. My name's Trevor. I'm sorry I truly don't have anything I can give you today, but I just wanted to say hi. It's got to get tough being out here all day."
"Thanks man. I lost my job two weeks ago and haven't been able to get another job. I've been putting in applications but nothing's come through. I really hate being out here and just want to find some work so I don't have to be."
At this point the light turned green.
"Well, I will pray that you get work soon."
"Hey, thanks for saying hi. You don't know how much that means."

The look in his eyes is one I'll never forget. When he told me it meant a lot that I said hi it was like he had been given hope. That seems wierd to me, to get that from someone saying hi, but I've never had to beg on a street corner, so I can't know what that does to you.

I don't tell this story to say I'm great or something. I shudder to think how many times I haven't stopped to say hi or how much I should have done and didn't. My point is that dignity is important. I can't imagine how humiliating it would be to stand on a street corner and ask for money. Or how humiliating it would be to go apply for welfare. We can do so much good by treating the poor as the equals they are. We cannot forget this point if we really want to please God.