"Consider it all joy, my brothers, when you encounter various trials, for you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. And let perseverance be perfect, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing."
James 1: 2-4
According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, poverty
is defined as “the state of one who lacks
a usual or socially acceptable amount of money or material possessions”.
We tend
to believe that our riches or successes are from how hard we worked and that we
are entitled to these possessions. If there’s ever a deficit in the success or
money we expect, we start to think we are unworthy, we start questioning the
goodness of the Lord.
Have
you ever been in a situation where you said life isn’t fair or what did I ever
do to get a life like this? Have you looked at your surroundings and believed
you weren’t doing enough?
I have.
I’ve seen poverty first hand, and no matter how much I wanted to pick all the
kids up and take them back with me, I couldn’t. I questioned God. How is it okay
for kids NOT to go days without eating? How is it fair that they haven’t seen a
doctor?
In the
midst of breaking down, someone told me. “If you are so upset about experiencing this, imagine how Christ feels”
That
phrase hit me like a ton of bricks. God never picks
favorites. (Although, we tend to believe he does). Think about it, God uses the poor to
bring the rich to Heaven.
I've come to the conclusion that it is
because of our selfishness that there are many in poverty.
Participating
in my second healing mission for Jesus Youth, I realized Haiti has the most
joyful people I have encountered in my life. Although, I’ve been to Haiti before,
I caught myself feeling many emotions. Why are we
never satisfied with life? Why is it that we have more, but second guess
ourselves to give to one another? Why is it that they have close to “nothing”
but their hearts are overflowing with joy?
When God is so close to you and cradling you in the palm of His hands,
who couldn’t be joyous?
Their trust in God will put mine to shame.
We have to remember that it is our duty as children of God to reach out to our brothers and
sisters in need. God uses us to uplift others in poverty.
As we were visiting an orphanage, the brothers were wearing
crosses that only had Christs’ head. This symbolized that they are the hands
and feet of Jesus. After that moment, this particular quote
resonated in my heart:
"Christ has no body now on
earth but yours; no hands but yours; no feet but yours. Yours are the eyes
through which the compassion of Christ must look out on the world. Yours are
the feet with which He is to go about doing good. Yours are the hands with which
He is to bless His people.” -St. Teresa of Avila
I know my journey to serve as a
missionary is not over. This mission trip has opened my eyes to new horizons,
and there is a profound joy in serving. There’s a preconceived notion that one
has to be holy to serve, but serving begins within ourselves. It starts with
how you treat people; how you attempt to see Christ through everyone you meet.
There are many parts of the world that are suffering from poverty, but if we
open our eyes and look at our surroundings, who is really in poverty?
St. Teresa of Calcutta said it best:
“Being unwanted, unloved, uncared
for, forgotten by everybody, I think that is a much greater hunger, a much
greater poverty than the person who has nothing to eat.”
