Poverty

Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest."

Matt 11:28 NRSV

 

Jobless, homeless, hungry, and cold: that is the state of a lot of Americans. So many are weary of struggling to survive from day to day. We live in a country of some pretty big extremes. It amazes me when the political and social upper classes speak like people earning $50,000 a year are poor. In 2012, the National Center for Law and Justice estimated that one out of sixteen people were living in deep poverty; that is they lived with income 50% below the poverty line. Imagine living like that! Those who live in deep poverty will never see this blog. They do not have access to computers or the internet. Many live on the streets. Just maybe our elected officials make so much money they have lost touch with the reality of what kind of struggles many Americans actually live with. $50,000. a year is not poor for an traditional family of two parents and two children. It should definitely not be considered poor for a family of two adults. One can feed and clothe and shelter their families quite adequately on $50,000 a year.

 

Personally, I get weary of people who have I-Phones and I-Pods; have more bedrooms than children; and, take vacations two or three times a year complaining that they don't make fair wages or are broke. I get weary when people tell me that they are "poor" when they are not poor; not by a long shot. We need to remember that we are representatives of Christ. He calls us, even as he called Peter to feed his sheep. He does not call us to build up secret storehouses for ourselves and then go around like we are in need of charity ourselves and unable to help others to meet their daily needs.

 

May God help all of his representatives to feed his sheep; to help carry the burdens of others so that they might find rest. The followers and representatives of Jesus the Christ must step up and do this as it seems quite apparent that our elected representatives don't have much of a clue as how to do this.

God's Peace - Pr. J

P.S. In 2015, there were 43.1 million people living in poverty in the United States. Feed His sheep!