You May Be Living in Poverty and Not Know It

Are you living in spiritual poverty? Poverty means “living without”. It’s usually used in the context of “without financial means for basic necessities”. During the current shutdown I bet most of us realized that other than food, we already have all the material possessions we need and more.

I’d like to expand the idea of “poverty” to include something far more important to many people. People living in poverty as it relates to their relationship with Jesus Christ.  

I realize some readers are not Believers and can freely choose to move on from this post.

It’s Holy Week and today is Good Friday, the day Jesus Christ was crucified/sacrificed for the sake of all Christians. During this shutdown I have been comforted by my Faith as I have given it all to God and let go. Of course, I’ve found myself getting a little scared and worried from time to time.  I’ve done pretty well turning to God exchanging my worried thoughts for prayer.

As the virus was breaking out, I was on a Christian Mission trip to LaPaz, Mexico.  Fortunately, my Faith was deepened just in time to help me stay strong during this shutdown. Our trip was with fifteen Christian men helping with hard labor construction for a Christian community at Rancho el Camino.

While on the ranch, my takeaway is while not materially rich, the people working at the ranch (Miguel, Mi, Pete, Lazarous and more) are all rich in Christ and find great comfort in that daily.

For those that follow Christ, I can’t emphasize enough that moving forward on your spiritual journey needs to be highly prioritized, especially in times like these.

We sometimes forget that our relationships are what matter most in life (not our 401k balance) and it’s easy to put Christ aside.  It’s so easy for Christian’s in the material focused, busy life we live to be distracted from our personal Faith journey.  Sooooo many things to distract us: work, kids, home. to-do lists, etc. Maybe while we are at home, we can turn off the TV for 10 minutes a day and say a prayer or read the bible. It’s a small time investment that may pay a huge reward: PEACE OF MIND. 

While our typical life is often chaotic, it’s not like that on the ranch in LaPaz. I didn’t see a clock when I was there. No TV either. No sense of urgency for anyone.  We all worked very hard, but not ‘timed” work. No hard deadlines. No phones to answer. No news from the outside world. What a joy! We started and ended our days in “The Word”. Our focus was working together and improving the facilities at the ranch. The ranch motto is “Better Together” and that includes the people and our God working together.

I’m guessing half the world has never heard (No TV’s) of the Coronavirus. We were interested while we were there because it impacted our retirement and college savings balances. The locals, had no interest in Coronavirus or the stock market because they had no (ZERO) savings. More money, more problems…. and more distractions from Faith related activities. 

One of our guys shared when he went on a prior mission trip to Haiti. He was surprised when the financial impoverished Haitian’s prayed for the American Missionaries. They prayed for the rich U.S missionaries to overcome their life’s distractions and find time to grow their Faith. We don’t have it made unless we have a close relationship with Christ.

We can all use this time to advance our personal relationship.

I’m in the business of helping people define and achieve their financial and life goals.  I’m blessed as I’ve spoken to clients these past few weeks how calm they’ve all been. It’s been comforting.

After being on the ranch for a week, I returned more excited about encouraging people on making progress on their spiritual journey then their financial one. The material goals we all have are important, but only to a point. Ideally, we would put our spiritual and life goals in solid perspective. 

My guess is that at the end of one’s life many people will figure out they put WAY too much emphasis on accumulating the numbers reflected on their personal balance sheet. 

When someone close to you died, where did peace and acceptance come from? Not from their net worth. Not from their possessions. On the way out, I’d bet dying people spend most of their final days thinking about their relationships and afterlife, not their balance sheet.

As a Christian, I believe I’m as rich as my Faith in Christ is strong.