During this time of high unemployment people are engaging in conversations about how one should live without during times of financial crisis. The suggestions vary as much as the people do but the common theme seems to be that those who are in the midst of the struggle should be able to endure by just giving up some of the “excesses” that they have accumulated or integrated into the normalcy of their family lives suring the abundant times and then they will find themselves with enough. If they do not, then surely there must be agencies “out there” who will assist them.
This reminds me so much of the scene in the movie, “Scrooge”, with George C. Scott where he questions the men seeking donations for the poor by saying “Are there no work houses?, Are there no prisons?”. Later in the movie he comes to have his comments thrust back at him while being scolded by the spirit of Christmas “present” for not enlarging his circle of concern to those within his community and his world leaving the viewer with the truth that we are to be benefactors to all.
The Catholic prayer, The Litany of the Saints, asks for prayers for benefactors; benefactors being those around us who have assisted us when we were in need of mercy. That brings me back to wondering how one is to be a benefactor during a season of poverty within a culture of abundance. How do we determine what someone should give up before they are “worthy” of our assistance?
I have read many stories over the course of the past three years about individuals and families who are struggling due to our economy. They are struggling to maintain their lifestyle, their homes, their cars, their educational choices, etc., and many are criticized for that. So I am left wondering what it is that possible benefactors are looking for before they are moved to pity someone’s situation. Are they looking for what they might do if they were in that situation? Are they looking for that person to be willing to take any type of employment no matter what it ramification it may cause? Does the injured person or family have to live a difficult life so openly that others will notice disheveled hair or worn out clothes or loss of weight so that benefactors do not have to look for themselves at who may be in need? Does there have to be a foreclosure on a home or a loss of schooling or a selling of a needed vehicle to gain attention? What is it that someone else has the need to “show us” before we are moved with pity to look at our own lives and see our own excesses in order to help them during their times of trial?
So, what is poverty in America? In the Midwest? In Fargo, North Dakota? Is it too high of an expectation that someone be out of work and they continue to maintain in their own home and have their vehicles and still receive help from others? Should their children still receive birthday presents and surprises at Easter? Should their freezer be half full or mostly empty? Should they seek out the pawn shop and sell off those unnecessary items such as CD’s or DVD’s or jewelry or books to gain a few dollars so that they may provide for themselves? Should we be expected to actually ask someone if they need help to maintain or is it reasonable to think that maintaining should exist in the eye of the benefactor?
All of us will enter into seasons of trial. Most of us will have seasons in our lives where that trial will include lean financial times. God’s expectation that is revealed to us in His Word is that we are to love others as we love ourselves. This is the job description of the benefactor. On the emotional surface we fear being taken advantage of by someone who is not willing to make the changes in their life that we think we should have to make if it were us. But deep beneath that superficial fear is the fear that that person could one day be us so we need more to store up our excess for our season of need instead of opening up our abundance to others. The whole complex situation stays nicely wrapped up in the wrapping of fear and we lift our eyes a little higher or we get a little busier or we buy a few more things so that we cannot be drawn by that merciful part of ourselves to see the need exposed before us. This subject matter begs for me to end this blog with the question “Who really is the impoverished one? The one who rises and lays down within the struggles of the day or the one who tries so hard to insulate themselves from the awareness of the personal poverty that exists within their reach? I think this is a subject that needs to be clarified through continued dialogue. There is not a “one size fits all” answer. The truth lies within our love for ourselves and what we hold dear in our own lives
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