Hope-Bearers

My eyes have been opened. No longer do I live in a community and NOT see the vast needs that exist right inside our own borders. Right under our noses. Before my opportunity to step inside the world of the hurting, hungry, destitute, I lived ignorantly. It changes you to witness the hunger (physical and spiritual) and destitution. I can no longer drive the streets of this community admiring the well-manicured lawns and not think about the depth of needs that exist.

While I am saddened by this awareness for many reasons, I am compelled to speak out, to act upon those feelings. I realize that my own needs seem to diminish in intensity in my awareness that some are wondering where they will rest their heads tonight or what they will find to fill their baby's tummy. It is easy for us to make assumptions as to what caused the predicament. Is it laziness, wastefulness, undisciplined selves? Understanding the "whys" are important. Don't get me wrong. To meet needs without rooting out the cause only enables neediness. But, have we grown accustomed to assuming and excusing our lack of compassion? What if we assumed something different? What if we assumed that with some compassion, with some of our lives poured out into theirs, a change can happen?

I am called, as a Christian, to be a hope-bearer. Not an assumption maker. I must be willing to share my hope in order that someone else may find theirs. We have bought into the notion that individual is best. That handling things on our own is the brave thing to do. And, sadly to some, that we are entitled to better. None of these are true. We were created with a need for community. We were created for connection with others. And, none of us is entitled to anything but what God has willed in our lives. The sense of entitlement, from what I have witnessed, is a great source of heartache amongst many of the needy. Yes, there is a huge chasm in our world that exists between the poor and the wealthy. What gets us into trouble is when we think to ourselves, "they owe me", "they have to give me what I am lacking". In a sense it is a reaching and grabbing motion with the hands instead of a position of palms up, waiting to receive.

The fact of the matter is that there will always be poverty. There will always be those who have much and those who do not and varying degrees inbetween. Does that abdicate our responsibility to have compassion? Or to step up and offer what we can of ourselves to give someone else hope? Absolutely not! For those of us who know from where our hope comes from, we need to share! It isn't something we are supposed to keep for ourselves. For hope grows when we share it. As we are reaching out to feed the hungry and clothe the poor, I need to remember this.....to take opportunity to feed the souls too. At the core of every human being is a place that is empty without God. A place designed and created for God alone. If I, who knows this to be true and has experienced the life-giving presence of God in my life, am not willing to tell someone this, then I am not a hope-bearer. I will have failed my responsibility, failed my destiny.