How do we deal with poverty?
Everyone wants to end poverty. It’s one of those bad things out there that everyone agrees is bad. Same goes for famine, war, disease, pollution, teenage pregnancy, and many other societal problems. If it was simple to end these things, it would have happened a long time ago.
The question for us, and for us to ask of our politicians, is not whether or not they care about these issues (I think most of them do), but what’s the best way to end or at least start healing these problems. I read an article last week (not linked to here, because I can’t find it right now- arrgh) talking about the ol’ “Give a man a fish, feed him for a day, teach a man to fish, feed him for a lifetime” proberb. The problem, the article stated, is that teaching a man to fish requires so much more hard work. Give a man a fish and you get a nice little feel good buzz. Give a man a fish and you can leave him after that. You don’t need to become emotionally involved in his life or care what happens to him after the fish is gone. Giving a man a fish is so much simpler.
But if you want to teach a man to fish, you’re in all the way. That means caring about the person. That means sticking with the person. That means getting involved in programs yourself- be it mentorship, reading, adult education, foster care, or other programs that take long term commitment. This means pushing our politicians to focus on such programs, not just promising to end things that aren’t in their power to end. All politicians (both parties!) like to make big promises. But big change will only happen when people truly get involved on the grass roots level to make the changes happen. And that is a powerful involvement, not just for the other, but also for you.
I like this quote from Basil the Great of Caesarea, one of the church fathers on the topic of poverty. “He [God] has not left us the poor to feed because He is unable to do this, but He ask from us, for our own good, the fruit of justice and mercy.”
You see, God could take care of all the problems in the world, but he has reasons for not doing so. Part of that reason (and we don’t understand it all by any means), is that he wants to transform all of us through what we face in the here and now. Let this be encouragement to you as you think about politics and your own life, how you will make a difference.
Tags: Politics, poverty, teach a man to fish