The Mourning Dove Caws

“I wonder what it would be like to use food stamps for a month.  I wonder how that would feel, standing in line at the grocery store, pulling from my wallet the bright currency of poverty, feeling the probing eyes of the customers as they studied my clothes and the items in my cart…”

Don Miller, Blue Like Jazz, 84

In high school I used to think of poverty as a type of virtue.  Given the music and lifestyle I was into, this makes sense.  My preferred lyrics taught me that society was so stratified because the well-to-do, and middle class even, had its values totally mixed up.  Conformity, comfort, and the like was not something I celebrated.  Dressing differently (even if ever so slightly) would be what set me apart.  I mean, who would want to look like the people who take things for granted?  I believed that poverty is where real life is.  People who could actually afford a savings account apparently had no clue.  For some reason, I envied the renegades who would have to scuffle around for food, hang out underneath bridges in hordes, and frequent the local music venues and bars.  Picture that type of romanticized lifestyle.  This would bring a person validation; only this type of story would be worth writing a biography about.

I don’t view the world through this lens anymore.  For a time in my life I bounced to the opposite extreme, feeling a sense of entitlement education and milieu gave me.  Today I stand taught, rebuked, and corrected by the Word and Spirit of God.  He does not desire poverty for the world, but neither is he pleased by excess.

I’ve never actually been poor.  I don’t know what it feels like to live paycheck to paycheck with the anxiety that I may no longer be able to afford the shelter over my head (and not have family that would take me in).  I don’t know what it’s like to be probed by curious eyes, save the time in high school when I preferred it that way.  But imagine that everywhere you went, your car, clothes, smell, whatever, gave you away.  Imagine having to use the currency of poverty, while those behind you in line look you over so as to confirm that you match their notion of a poor person.  Or worse, their eyes hold you accountable by checking to see if you filled your cart with efficient means of living.  Don Miller spoke of dignity.  When we judge the poor, we take away their dignity.  Some people think it necessary to exercise their God-given skills of observation by seeking to affirm labels.  “Must keep our empirical selves sharp!” I can hear them say.  And still, they hardly ever reach inside their wallets or give resources to organizations that help the poor.

Most of us don’t live in poverty.  Though it doesn’t necessarily make life more real, poverty is a real problem.  Nonetheless, humankind retains its dignity because it was created by God.  No matter where a person’s at in life, they deserve a sense of dignity and respect.  Let’s not allow our curious eyes to turn us into robbers.