Today is Blog Action Day and the purpose is to get all bloggers to write about a topic to bring about change.  This year the topic is “Poverty”.

Poverty comes in many forms.  We can be poor and live in a nice house and have 2 cars and work 80 hours a week and owe every bank from here to Tuscon more than we will earn in a lifetime because we also have the boat, pool, golf club membership, etc.  We can be living modestly and have a medical emergency in the family that just about sinks us.  We can be part of a family that breaks up - something more common today than ever before.  We can give up on society and decide to live in a cardboard box.

There are thousands of paths to poverty and it looks ten thousand different ways… and every one of them is a curse.  God does not want us to live that way.

The common response to a homeless person is to hand them a few coins or a whole dollar bill (wow!) and forget about it.  That response changes nothing.  It doesn’t address how they became homeless/poor.  It doesn’t do anything to prevent others from the same fate and the biggest of all is that it doesn’t speak to their spiritual needs.

Do your own thing and pray to see what God would have you do, but I have lived in Key West since 1993 and have seen thousands of homeless people here.  I worked in the homeless ministry for a couple of years at my last church.  I know several of the homeless and certainly know of dozens.  The truth here is that of the hundreds I have directly or indirectly ministered to, only 2 have been what I call “legitimately homeless”.  One was a aerospace engineer that lost his job and was living “at his means” so the little bump was all it took for him to lose everything.  The other was a mother of 3 kids whose husband walked out on her leaving her penniless.  The rest just don’t want to participate in society, or are too lazy to work, or like begging for enough to survive rather than taking personal responsibility, or are drug/alcohol addicts that can’t hold a job.

Our church as a whole takes the approach I do as an individual - if you are hungry I’ll feed you but you will not get money from me.  Personally I take it a step further… if you approach me asking “Excuse me, sir.  I was wondering if you could help me out.” I reply - “I’m not giving you any money.  What do you need?”  If they are legit then I’ll help.  It may seem cold but giving money to the panhandlers here that are living a life-choice will not help the situation at all.

Many would say “That’s not a Christian attitude - you can give them a dollar!” to which I say “What about Paul?”  He walked past a beggar that had a license to beg because he was disabled but Paul didn’t give him a sheckle - he said I don’t have money for you but what I do have, I’ll give to you.  Get up and walk.  I’m sure the conversation went on with “and let me tell you about the loving God that healed your life-long disability.”  Maybe if we do more of that than just buying carbon credits… oops, that’s another topic… “conscience easers” this thing known as poverty would turn into something wonderful.