Tonight is my last night in Winnipeg. I'll be driving to Kenora, Ont. tomorrow morning. Everyone says I'll love it because it's a gorgeous tourist town along the lake. I'm looking forward to seeing a new place, although now that I'm getting comfortable navigating my way around downtown Winnipeg, I have to leave. Still, my time here has been educational, eye-opening, fruitful and enjoyable. I have already met so many amazing, dedicated people who are doing God's work, and have spoken with people who have turned their lives around after years of painful, dangerous and tumultuous times. I think I have enough information to fill a book, and I'm only halfway through my tour. Who knows what the rest of my time out here will bring.
Since being here, I've been thinking a lot about poverty and how it seems impossible to break out of its seemingly never-ending cycle. Poverty all too often begets poverty -- little education leads to not being able to devise a budget or write a resume, which leads to no job (or one that pays minimum wage and can't support anyone - not even a single adult), which leads to living in a troubled neighbourhood, which leads to difficulty keeping kids out of trouble, which leads to more crime in the neighbourhood including drugs, alcohol, gangs, murder and suicide, which leads to reckless behaviour, which leads to teen pregnancies, which leads to even less money and support, which leads to dropping out of school and little education, which takes us back to the beginning. Add to all that language barriers if talking about Aboriginal or immigrant populations, little access to computers, phones and resources, a survival mode which leads to increased temptation of a life of crime, which only brings a person farther away from picking themselves up. Even if someone wants to make a change, the cards truly are stacked against them. But you all know these things. No wonder Jesus commanded us to help the poor, to care for the sick, and to help the least. There certainly is no shortage of need.
Even in Sodom, where sexual immorality is so often held up as its reason for destruction, I think the town's greater sin was much more:
"Now this was the sin of your sister Sodom: She and her daughters were arrogant, overfed and unconcerned; they did not help the poor and needy."
-Ezekiel 16:49
The Old Testament is filled with references to helping the poor:
"He who gives to the poor will lack nothing, but he who closes his eyes to them receives many curses."
-Proverbs 28:27
"Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves, for the rights of all who are destitute. Speak up and judge fairly; defend the rights of the poor and needy."
-Proverbs 31:8-9
"There will always be poor people in the land. Therefore I command you to be openhanded toward your brothers and toward the poor and needy in your land."
-Deuteronomy 15:11
And of course, Jesus:
"Then he will say to those on his left, 'Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.' They also will answer, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?' He will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did not do for one of the least among you, you did not do for me.'"
-Matthew 25:41-45
Perhaps we all need to open our eyes a little more widely to the need around us. I think recognizing the extent of the problem (which I'm just beginning to understand) is the first, critical step. Without that knowledge, we will have no desire to act.
Enough said for now.
AM.
