Me? Rich? | Previous Challenge Entry

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TITLE: Me? Rich? | Previous Challenge Entry
By Lois Eaton
09/04/24
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Me? Rich?

They thought I was rich. Me? Yes. Me!

But I thought I had grown up in poverty. We did not own a car. Roast chicken was a once-a-year treat – Christmas. I never had a bike. At school I had to borrow colouring pencils from friends.

Then I went to Indonesia. They thought I was VERY rich. I had two things that made it clear to them that I was very rich. I owned a toothbrush. Not one to be shared by my whole family. And not one I had made for myself from a stick I found lying on the ground. I also had feminine hygiene products. So I was up there with the richest of the rich. Surely that was the ultimate in richness? I was never game to tell them that my Australian home had an INDOORS toilet.

I had to keep private the thought that I was not rich at all. Some things are relative.

My Indonesian friends did not think of themselves as dreadfully poor. They had enough to eat – Usually. Rice most days and quite often vegies to go with it. On special days they also had a little pork. Rancid pork. Luxury. They also thought they had good water. It was brown, but rarely made them sick. So they thought they were quite well off.

Then I remembered getting to know a man who grew up in poverty – and never escaped it during his life on earth. Meat was a rare treat, mostly reserved for feast days. They did have fish occasionally. Poverty was the norm, exacerbated by cruel taxes from the country that had conquered them. No-one had indoor toilets. Water had to be carried by hand. Men could not marry young because they had to prove first that they could support a family. That was very, very hard. Women were uneducated, as they had futures that offered nothing but child-bearing and housework. No labour-saving gadgets. No fridges or freezers. No vacuum cleaners. No microwave ovens. No phones for chatting to friends, or for calling for help in emergencies. What poverty! They did not even have the internet!

But this man said some amazing things. One of them was, “Blessed are the poor in spirit.”

Blessed? So someone whose spirit was broken was blessed? It made no sense.

But then I read from Isaiah (a prophet who talked about this man):
Matt 12:18-20:
v18: Behold my servant, whom I have chosen; my beloved, in whom my soul is well pleased: I will put my spirit upon him, and he shall shew judgment to the Gentiles.
V19: He shall not strive, nor cry; neither shall any man hear his voice in the streets.
V20: A bruised reed shall he not break, and smoking flax shall he not quench, till he send forth judgment unto victory.

He seemed to be saying that a bruised spirit does NOT have to break. Healing is available. So those who are poor in spirit can cry out to God for healing. They can become rich in spirit. The bruised ones will see victory. The broken, too, can find victory if they cry out to God.
There are no promises that the unbruised will see victory.
So there is nothing in poverty to fear.

I am not called of God to spend my life accumulating money and riches. Better to enter the kingdom of Heaven poor than miss out. And spiritually I can be rich RIGHT NOW! I just have to turn my bruised spirit over to God. It is that simple.

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