A Week in the Community

I am just getting a chance to look at the results from the poll I conducted. I am sad to see, but not at all surprised, that most people who responded have not been in the poor community they live in for over 3 months. God has convicted me this week as well about this poll. When I posted it I did not think about it applying to me. All I thought was, I am living in the slums of Bangkok. Tuesday, I asked one of the Step Ahead staff what the poorest slum community Step Ahead helps is. Later that day, she pointed out a community located under the expressway, next to one of the most polluted and smelliest streams, living in homes made of scrap tin and plywood. She told me, that is where the poorest people live. Then she asked me a question that really hurt and convicted me. She asked what the slums were like in the US. My first thought was: nothing like this, but then I stopped. As my mind raced for a memory of walking through the poor communities in Albertville or Chattanooga with not success. I am so embarrassed to think, I have not spent time walking through the poor communities in America like I have here. I have not spent time living in the poor communities in America like I have here. I have not spent time budgeting like the poor in America like I have here. I have not spent time getting to know the poor in their neighborhoods in America like I have here. I am as much in need of God's grace in this as anyone else, if not more. I want to ask you to spend time with those living around you who have less than you.

God has directed my reading to Isaiah 58. In it God shares what he loves. He shares what true fasting is. I encourage all to read and meditate on it.

The next poll will seek to better understand how much we know about those around us who have less than we do. Please answer it when you read this blog. It will only take one click. In the week to come I challenge all reading this blog to seek out the poor and marginalized and love them. Seek out the poor described in Isaiah 58, and love them the way Isaiah 58 tells us to. It is them who Jesus came to save.

Now, to the one and only God, maker of heaven and earth, be all glory and honor and praise now and forever more.