A few years back I was part of a group that decided to volunteer for a night in downtown Toronto to help the poor. We travelled downtown and met at a Salvation Army location. There we were teamed up in groups of three, a regular volunteer and two of us newcomers. We walked around the downtown core of the city and handed out “brown bag lunches” to the poor of the city on a Friday night. The regular volunteer knew most of the people we met up with by name. We stopped and chatted with the people. Some were quite willing to talk; others not so much. It was an eye opener working with the Salvation Army, but especially working with the poor.
I have since encountered all kinds of people facing various forms and extremes of poverty. Poverty is real, and it happens for many reasons. Some face poverty because of some kind of inherent disadvantage. For example, some people are born with mental and/or physical disabilities and as such face a life of challenges not the least of which is trying to pay the rent and put food on the table. Some people face poverty as a result of natural disasters or major economic shifts. For example, in 2010 approximately 1.5 million people were displaced following a 7.0 earthquake. Five years later according to a Jan 6, 2015 article on CNN website, 85,000 people are still displaced. Surely, at least some of those are among the poor.
As another example, consider a factory closure. How many families will face financial hardship following that plant’s closure? They weren’t fired for behavior or performance. They were simply victims of an economic decision not of their own making. Another cause for poverty is moral. My heart goes out to the many single women who are trying to raise children on their own because their husbands, the fathers of their children failed in their moral obligations. How many fathers fail to make support payments? Many divorces occur because of marital infidelity, with the result that children are now living in poverty because the one or the other parent has run off with someone else.
Seeing that some poverty does come because of moral failure we have to ask the question: how can we prevent it? At the core, the only real solution is for major transformation in the lives of people. Jesus is the One who can do that. Being God in the flesh, He lived out perfect righteousness and died to pay the penalty for all of the unrighteous. This made a way for us to have a transformed heart, one which will result in a desire to work hard for a living, be faithful to our families and trust Him to provide for us no matter what disaster strikes in our lives that is out of our control.
The Christian Bible is filled with statements about God’s particular concern for the poor. In fact, very early in the book of Leviticus, God establishes a plan that will provide for the poor. In Leviticus chapter 19, verses 9-10 we read about how God directs the farmers of Israel to be careful how they harvest. He specifically asks them not to harvest the entire field. He tells them to leave a portion so that the poor in the area can go into the field and harvest some for themselves. Its not a handout, but it is help. So the poor have the dignity of being able to work, and receive the reward for their labor. Not long ago, I heard the story of a man who owned a wood working shop and used to sweep up the sawdust at the end of the day. He discovered there was a market for the sawdust and decided to start selling it. Then reflecting on this passage in Leviticus, decided to open his shop up at the end of the day for the poor to come and sweep, and they could then in turn sell the sawdust they had swept up and keep the proceeds for themselves.
So here is my question for all of us – how are you helping the poor? Every human being is made in the image of God. Every human being has value in God’s eyes. So when we see others suffering in poverty, it should cause us great concern. Their suffering should matter to us. So what creative ways can you think of to help the poor? Back in the 1980’s it was several Christian churches that came together and formed the Centre Wellington Food Bank (centrewellingtonfoodbank.org). Perhaps your solution will be to send money or food to them. That certainly would be a great start to helping combat poverty in our community.