Whoever gives to the poor will lack nothing, but those who close their eyes to poverty will be cursed.

Proverbs 28:27 NLT

Today's fun question is how do I close my eyes to poverty?

I do it in this way.

I believed that everyone (in the world) has the same opportunity to succeed. 

Even as I learned more about the world I still carried this story that at least in our country everyone is equal and has the same opportunity if you just choose to work hard. 

It's taken some time, and entering in to the stories of others to shift that presumption.

How does that belief make me blind?

Because it makes it easy to blame the person for where they are. 

It's all about them, their poor choices, and if only they made good, smart, better choices (like I would) then they wouldn't be in the place that they are now.

But I wasn't born into their family, in their body, had their experiences, had the expectations of their family, peers, culture, community. 

My parents weren't migrants learning a new language and working minimum wage jobs. 

I was never discriminated against. 

For anything.

I never knew what having a single parent was like, or having one in jail, or mentally ill, or injured. 

I never knew what going hungry was except joining in the World Vision 40hr famine. 

I never faced the systems that lock in poverty.

I was blind, and happy to be.

But this proverb invites us to lift our gaze, to open our eyes, and walk together towards a more humane and caring world. 

Towards shalom.

#proverbs

#somethingtochewon 

#shalom