You won't believe what poor people are doing until you actually get to meet them - aren't they pathetic - God forbid I ever get my hands 'dirty' and 'put in some work' to deal with....yuck....them. My parents raised me right and I work hard to get ahead in life - those poor people are lazy, drunks, addicts, losers, bums, criminals, and dirty. They need to resurrect more jails for these people. Keep these 'poor' people away from me:
(1) Just robbed a store to put some food on the table for me and my 5 kids
(2) Killed my girl-friend because I hate myself for the addiction that's killing me
(3) Rotting in a jail cell because Momma never know how to love me and Dad was too authoritarian
(4) Just got a welfare cheque for $200.00 - first time I ever seen this much money
(5) Holding you up in your house so I can sell your sh*t and pretend I am rich too
(6) Blood all over my hands from watching my friend get stabbed to death at a house-party
(7) Hiding under the bed since my mom is getting beat to a bloody pulp by my dad - and they are intoxicated again
(8) Have trouble with social interaction since my mom and dad rarely said a legible word to me - and when they spoke I was being 'cut down' or ridiculed
(9) Selling drugs to my neighborhood - I don't care who dies - I need the money - and I have never had money or responsibility before
(10) Want to kill the police for arresting and beating my brother to the ground - they also threw my momma to the ground and called her all kinds of abusive names
(11) Dropped out of school because nothing they teach me makes any damn sense in the 'here and now'
(12) Strung out in the basement - no one is around - I know I am dying - but no cared about me anyways
(13) Stealing cars and doing B-N-E's because I want to make some money and my parents don't give 2 sh*ts where I am tonight
(14) Had to steal your sh*t because my parents drank all my allowance up - and I don't care about you when no one cares about me - don't be stupid
(15) Had to kill that kid for trying to 'test me' - I'm violent because I know I can keep myself safe - I ain't failing where my parents did
(16) Strung up in the basement - I had to live with sexual abuse all my life - rather be hanging than hanging around here anymore
(17) Family has no respect for me in my accomplishments - they think I am trying to be 'better than them' - I feel worthless and I wish they were dead
(18) I'm begging in front of 7-11 since I gave up hope- no one cares about me - just give me some cash to drink as you look down on me - your the reason I am doing this you inconsiderate assh*le
(19) Been in jail for 6 months now and each night is lonelier than the last - it's kill or be killed in here - 'Don't let them see you cry', I know - but it's hard to live like no one loves you.
(20) Got 3 kids to raise and I'm on my own - no clue where the father is - some days we go without food - my kids get suspended at school for not listening - I have no life but when I can get my hand on a drink or two I am downing it - can't say whats worse - the stress of these kids lives in my hands - or the fact I am a failure.
(21) Got razorblade marks from shoulder to wrist - been so dulled by my existence - it's when I cut I actually feel something - that's so much better than nothing
(22) Life has no meaning - look around - all I see is people living poor - what's the point of that? - no hope for as far as the eye can see
(23) Been on the street corners for 3 months - I need the money for my kids - I do drugs to forget what it is I am doing - I hate myself and I hate these assh*les that pick me up - but for once I feel like someone does 'like me'
(24) Never owned a home, a decent car, or had the money to even think of that stuff - even if I had the chance I wouldn't know where to start - I know jack sh*t about the bank system
(25) I can barely afford to keep my power and energy bills going - welfare isn't cutting it anymore - most people won't give me a job - addictions are dragging me down - rch people look down upon me - they are going to get theirs.
This is merely a sample of the inner-city struggles and the issues they have to deal with. I meet these people all the time and have throughout my life - and when I mean poor and broken - well - this is what I mean. It's a struggle the church had forgotten about. I am resurrecting it.
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13 comments:
Thank you for this, Society.
Thank you for resurrecting what was at the heart of the message of Jesus. Jesus stood with the poorest and if we wish to stand with Jesus we need to stand where he stood.
Keep shining the light. We're dealing with humans made in God's image, and there is no reason why a wealthy society should let the cold, hungry, and homeless go without. maybe if we in the US spent a fraction of our Iraq war budget on eradicating poverty, the world would be a better place.
That is where He would be hanging out.
Crazy stuff this week - 2 more tragedies - had a cousin killed by her boyfriend and just found out someone I grew up with in the inner city of Regina was murdered this weekend (officially our first homicide of the year) - oddly enough - the perps will most likely end up being someone else I grew up with. This is just how close I am to the edge of the flames on this issue.
Do i really have to ask how much longer will the church as an institution of change sit idly by as I (and many others) watch friends committ suicide, kill one another, and lose their lives in other ways? All this goes back to lives that are broken/poor.
Someone told me thay have a 'choice' - problem is they don't know all the options.
Also a woman in Saskatoon (our neighbor to the north in Saskatchewan) aged 18 left her baby at someone's back doorsteps (in -30 weather) stating 'she didn't know what else to do?' It comes out she had no support from family or the father of that baby. She had no money to raise that kid and no real way to have that kid as a part of her life. Can't even imagine how this might have changed if the church had support programs and a day-care to help out. Just a thought.
I think there are churches that do have such programs. The difficulty is matching the need to the help at the right moment. Nevertheless, that's a tragedy. This world is broken.
Dorse, you are worth your weight in gold. I think I'll do more research into church programs and see what is out there in the mainstream - so I get a clue as to what is being done - maybe I am a little in the dark on this.
heh heh, that's a lot of gold, brutha. thanks.
Sometimes I think people in these situations are there because they have been rejected by society (and the church). Because of the way they look, or act, or behave, or "believe"... they are deemed unacceptable. They are pushed out of the mainstream to fend for themselves. In their desperation to cope, they resort to all sorts of measures to get by. In their hopelessness, they lose all self-esteem, and abandon their civility. In their rejection, they are angered, and in them, a desire builds to lash back, and try to get even.
It all starts with love and acceptance, but the "church" worships the "God of rejection", and have become just like their God. Only those "good enough" will enter the kingdom of heaven, so why shouldn't we require people to be "good enough" to enter our lives? It only makes sense.
Hi Bruce,
You know, I was once one of those people even though my dysfunctional family was in the country, I still found myself down and out in the city. Having never grown up in church, I have a bit of a different perspective. I have never placed the church between me and God though, my husband who grew up in church did before He came to Christ. It is interesting though, that neither of us accepted Christ as the result of any organized church program and neither of us were attending a church at the time Jesus was revealed to us or in us. I was a Christian for ten years before He also became a Christian. It was shortly after that we were invited to a church because of a friend who had also been recently converted. I've wondered off a bit here...it was Jesus that intervened in my life and ended my drug addiction. My first real prayer was that God would send someone to love me and He sent my husband. I was never down and out again after God intervened in my life through Christ. I guess I differ a bit in thinking that those who are hurting need the church. They need Jesus. The church can be kind and fill their bellies and even give them a place to live but we can't give them the gift of Life. I was dead to God and lived my life in celebration of death. When Jesus imparted Life to me, everything changed.
Pam
Pam, wouldn't the church be the logical place to start to help the poor and desperate in society?
society,
Yes, it is a good place to reach out to folks. While we are feeding their bellies though let us remember that many of them are so far gone, as I was, to be beyond rehabilitation but they are never too far gone for regeneration. We should do all that is possible to help other people but there is only so much we can do. That which is impossible for us to do is possible with God. Starving, poor people need food and shelter for their immediate needs but they also need Jesus for the needs within them that we are unable to reach.
By the way, I would much rather have any money I donated to the church go here than to some political group or party that is seeking to enact God's Will through politics. I'm not against you, brother.
Pam
Pam I know - thanks for the comments - I am not against anyone either - although my wording is sometimes cut-throat sounding. I know everyone that blogs has a rather good nature to them and I appreciate everyone's commenst.
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