Eyes to SeeSample

Poverty is complicated. But at the same time, we can have an overly simplistic view of people we encounter in poverty, thinking that if they truly wanted to change their circumstances, they could. Development expert Robert Chambers likens economic poverty to a web made of interconnected strands: insufficient assets, vulnerability, powerlessness, isolation, and physical weakness. Caught in this web, people believe they no longer have choices or are capable of change. Eventually, they lose hope of escape.

Michelle was born in a slum in Manila, Philippines. Her makeshift home was small, made smaller by sharing it with seventeen relatives. As you can imagine, food was scarce, and violence and drug abuse were daily realities. After Michelle’s relatives removed her drug-addicted father, they began to turn on her. “You are so ugly,” they taunted. “You will grow up to be like him.”

A very young girl when she heard these words, Michelle came to feel that she was worthless and had no future. The messages that poverty had whispered in her ear—that she wasn’t good enough and that she could never change her circumstances—began to take root. She was caught in the web.

People like Michelle want what all of us want —to be whole. Luke 2:52 tells us, “Jesus grew in wisdom and stature, and in favour with God and man.” This short verse contains so much wisdom about what every person needs to thrive.

Every person needs:

• Cognitive health (growing in wisdom),

• physical health (growing in stature),

• spiritual health (growing in favour with God)

• and socio-emotional health (growing in favour with man).

Our response to poverty can’t simply focus on the economic aspect; rather, it needs to consider all these areas that make a person’s life whole.

The exciting thing is that wholeness can happen.

In Michelle’s life, it began when her aunt took her to church, where she learned that Jesus loved her. The gospel began to change her identity from the daughter of a drug addict who could never change to the daughter of a God who had good plans for her life.

The changes continued when Christians sponsored Michelle from far away. They loved her, called her beautiful, and reminded her of their prayers. Michelle says, “God used [these letters] in healing my broken self-image and destroyed self-worth.”

Michelle was able to pursue her education and earned a master’s degree. She founded an organization that helps women who have been rescued from sex trafficking, affirming their worth. She reminds herself: “You may have been born in poverty, but poverty was not born in you!”

Poverty is complicated and messy, but it doesn’t have to be the final word.

Michelle became a changed person, changing her circumstances and the lives of many. God is at work bringing people out of poverty and into lives that are healthier in every way.

Reflect:

• In Michelle’s life, which of the four areas we discussed today were broken?

Act:

Make a list of what wholeness looks like for you in terms of “wisdom, stature, favour with God and man.” How similar is wholeness for you and those living in poverty?

Pray:

Father, thank You that You see Michelle and You see me. You know our complex needs. You want wholeness and health for us. Help me to see as you do when I encounter people who live in economic poverty. Help me see the ways in which they aren’t so different from me and how we all depend on You. Amen.