The Poor in Spirit

Excerpt from my journal, January 26, 2013

I see their "apparent" material poverty, and I immediately want to give them more. I want them to have more, plenty even! But what a consumerist view. Of course I think more stuff is better, because I have more stuff. But Lord, should I not first think that You are the Most more I could give them? They may be richer than I am. For I have poverty of spirit in thinking that my "stuff" makes me safe.

But even if they do have you, I still crave to meet them in their need. Help me understand what this means. Please put people in my life to help me understand. And please continue to wreck my heart with this, because I am fairly certain that my longing for everyone's wholeness and provision is a manifestation of my heart longing for heaven.

This type of shack lines the roads everywhere. Sometimes they are just the
stand where the family sells produce, and sometimes the shack is also their only home.

So, since before I arrived I have been praying for the Lord to prepare my heart to see a greater level of poverty than I've ever seen. I've been praying for him to teach me how I should see it, and how I can help. What good I can do. So I'm not there yet, because I still feel clueless as to what I should exactly be doing. But he has faithfully been teaching me how I can see poverty. He has been teaching me how to see my own poverty as well, and recognize that mine is not better or worse. As long as I don't allow this to become an excuse not to help, I think I am on the right track. So, just to sum this up a little:

Psalm 109: 22-23

For I am poor and needy, and my heart is wounded within me. I fade away like an evening shadow; I am shaken off like a locust.

Read: Just because I am not materially poor, doesn't mean I'm not poor. I'm poor and I shouldn't look down on others for being so as well.

Psalm 82:3

Defend the weak and the fatherless; uphold the cause of the poor and the oppressed.

Read: The fact that I may be poor in non-material ways does NOT negate my need to care for those who are poor and oppressed. I still get to help!

Just my musings on one of the many things God has started to do in my heart. Thanks for all the love and support as always. I am certainly not poor when it comes to love!

SForbes

David, Uriah, Anne, Daniel I., Me, and Belinda at the top of the quarry overlooking Lake Victoria!