Poor me. "Never my way."
I had noticed this sad little graffiti some months ago. I felt a kinship with the "artist". We've all felt this way--that life just isn't going our way. Nothing is working out as we'd hoped or planned. The world is against us.
At the most basic level, being poor involves lack of money and/or lack of the necessities of life such as food, clothing and shelter. But there are other ways of being impoverished. Our lives can be missing other things that leave us feeling lost and less fortunate than others. We can lack friends or family or love. We can lack confidence and security. We can lack hope and the belief that the future will be better. All of those leave us feeling poor in comparison to others.
As Christians, we should feel the need to reach out to the poor, to help with whatever the need may be. We don't need to be rich or happy or perfect to give to others. All that's required is to recognize a need, a sadness, a void in someone else and then to try to offer comfort and help in whatever way we can. Nothing grand, just food for a local food pantry, or comfort to someone grieving, or offering friendship to someone who is alone. And we'll probably discover there's a special magic about giving of ourselves. It often seems that the more we give, the less poor we feel.
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