RE:SOURCE
Challenge
Challenge
Poverty and Human Flourishing
Part 1/3
SEED THOUGHT
What do you do for the poor? Maybe it’s a monthly check to an orphanage. Or perhaps you spend an occasional Saturday afternoon packing food boxes for hungry bellies. But have you ever stopped to consider what it is that motivates you to help the poor?
Today billions of people are living on less than $2 a day – a daily struggle for survival. However, did you know that since 2000 almost a billion people have risen out of desperate poverty? What may surprise you is that this is the result of business and trade, not charity and aid. But before we can really understand why or how this is working – we need to take a few steps back. Let’s talk about the nature of poverty.
In an effort to be more effective in their poverty alleviation strategies, the World Bank began to ask the poor a simple question: what does poverty mean to you? The responses were chilling.
“For a poor person everything is terrible—illness, humiliation, shame. We are cripples; we are afraid of everything; we depend on everyone. No one needs us. We are like garbage that everyone wants to get rid of. – Moldova” (Voices of the Poor: Can Anyone Hear Us? 52)
While the West primarily describes poverty as a lack of material possessions, the poor largely talk about the psychological and social effects of that poverty. We are treating a problem that we see as material with a material solution – relief efforts, charities, food banks – all the while ignoring its social and psychological ramifications. Poverty is a social, psychological, emotional, and material problem – a human problem. This is an essential truth to grasp before searching for permanent solutions. Now, how does this affect our actions?
REFLECT
Take two minutes to ponder and record your answers to the questions below. Be sure to write them out, as 95% of the value of this reflection comes from actually considering-as-you-write.
ACT
Paul says in 1 Corinthians 13:3, “If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.” Our main motivation for all that we do to help the poor ought to be love. We must love the poor before we can help them.
Think about a specific impoverished community that you have a heart for (such as one you visited on a short-term mission trip). Now, for the next 10 days, take 2 minutes a day and pray that your love for them would increase. We’re calling it the 10-2 challenge. Will you take us up on it?
Citation: Narayan, Deepa with Raj Patel, Kai Schafft, Anne Rademacher and Sarah Koch-Schulte. 2000. Voices of the Poor: Can Anyone Hear Us? New York, N.Y.: Published for the World Bank, Oxford University Press. 52.
Part 1/3
SEED THOUGHT
What do you do for the poor? Maybe it’s a monthly check to an orphanage. Or perhaps you spend an occasional Saturday afternoon packing food boxes for hungry bellies. But have you ever stopped to consider what it is that motivates you to help the poor?
Today billions of people are living on less than $2 a day – a daily struggle for survival. However, did you know that since 2000 almost a billion people have risen out of desperate poverty? What may surprise you is that this is the result of business and trade, not charity and aid. But before we can really understand why or how this is working – we need to take a few steps back. Let’s talk about the nature of poverty.
In an effort to be more effective in their poverty alleviation strategies, the World Bank began to ask the poor a simple question: what does poverty mean to you? The responses were chilling.
“For a poor person everything is terrible—illness, humiliation, shame. We are cripples; we are afraid of everything; we depend on everyone. No one needs us. We are like garbage that everyone wants to get rid of. – Moldova” (Voices of the Poor: Can Anyone Hear Us? 52)
While the West primarily describes poverty as a lack of material possessions, the poor largely talk about the psychological and social effects of that poverty. We are treating a problem that we see as material with a material solution – relief efforts, charities, food banks – all the while ignoring its social and psychological ramifications. Poverty is a social, psychological, emotional, and material problem – a human problem. This is an essential truth to grasp before searching for permanent solutions. Now, how does this affect our actions?
REFLECT
Take two minutes to ponder and record your answers to the questions below. Be sure to write them out, as 95% of the value of this reflection comes from actually considering-as-you-write.
- What motivates you to help the poor?
- In the past, how would you have defined poverty?
Has this Seed Thought challenged your definition?
If so, how? - Think through each poverty relief effort you’re a part of.
Are they focused on improving material conditions,
or that and more?
ACT
Paul says in 1 Corinthians 13:3, “If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.” Our main motivation for all that we do to help the poor ought to be love. We must love the poor before we can help them.
Think about a specific impoverished community that you have a heart for (such as one you visited on a short-term mission trip). Now, for the next 10 days, take 2 minutes a day and pray that your love for them would increase. We’re calling it the 10-2 challenge. Will you take us up on it?
Citation: Narayan, Deepa with Raj Patel, Kai Schafft, Anne Rademacher and Sarah Koch-Schulte. 2000. Voices of the Poor: Can Anyone Hear Us? New York, N.Y.: Published for the World Bank, Oxford University Press. 52.
