The Poor Deserve to be Poor, Right?

Poor people here, poor people there, poor people everywhere...and each of them deserve to be poor because they are bad stewards of their money, have a drug and/or alcohol problem, they have endless amounts of careless sex and never use protection, and they probably chose to live way above their means.

Now, I'm going to stop myself right here and say that these are all thoughts that I personally have had or comments that I have heard from other people. Some of the above statements may be true, but chances are there is a lot more to their story than I have even cared to think about. In fact, many people who find themselves to be poor did nothing to "deserve" it.

So, let's break the mold in our thinking. Tim Keller, in his book "Ministries of Mercy," states that there are at least three causes of poverty: 1) Oppression or injustice...someone sinned against them 2) Calamity or natural disaster 3)Personal sin (the one most people assume to be the sole cause).

The above three reasons alone can change how we view the poor, if we keep them in mind. I'm sure almost everyone that will read this blog knows someone or has themselves experienced oppression, injustice, calamity, or natural disaster. How many people reading this blog no of someone who randomly fell sick to cancer and now has a ton of medical bills they must pay for and on top of that they are out of work because of the condition of their body? Do they deserve to be poor? Is it their fault that they suddenly became ill and hadn't been keeping a "just in case I get cancer" fund? Personally, I would answer those questions with a "no."

Having read through this part of Tim Keller's "Ministries of Mercy" I found myself thinking "well, I know not every person got themselves into poverty..." but I also found myself thinking that "many of them don't even try to get out of their current situation..." That too can be a lie in which we believe and categorize the poor as "lazy." I challenge those of you reading this to join me in rethinking through what it is that may have been the cause of someone's poverty rather than assuming that they deserve it and that they put themselves there. We each have a story and you don't necessarily know theirs anymore than they know yours.