What does poverty mean? It all depends.

What does poverty mean to a child orphaned by cancer and abandoned by his father? It means he has to learn how to dream again.

What does poverty mean to the great aunt taking care of him, and his six year old sister? It means fear. Fear that someone may take the children away from her.

What does poverty mean to a mother who lost her two-year old child to pneumonia while waiting at the hospital for treatment? It means the Body of Christ is a refuge.

What does poverty mean to a man once persecuted because of his faith? It means he becomes a pastor and serves His Savior for 28 years and counting.

What does poverty mean to a boy who learns about Jesus Christ on a regular basis? It means self-respect, self-esteem and the ability to love.

What does poverty mean to you? I don’t know exactly.

But I do know it’s an opportunity to provide an opportunity. And it means possible discomfort and sacrifice.

It definitely means joy too.

It means hope for one who may have given up hope.

It means a future.

What does poverty mean to a child without a sponsor? It means a sponsor is needed.

To the masses of poor, poverty means dependence, marginalization, scarcity, incapacity and restrictions on rights and freedoms.

Poverty is defined by the World Bank as hunger, lack of shelter, being sick and not being able to see a doctor. It’s not having access to school and not knowing how to read. Poverty means not having a job, fear for the future and living one day at a time. Poverty is powerlessness.

But the most important question we need to ask ourselves and each other is,

What does poverty mean to God?

Photos by Keely Marie Scott and Patricia Jones from the Compassion Bloggers trip to Ecuador.

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Imagine a young couple in the labor and delivery room experiencing the birth of their first child. Hear her groans, see the sweat, and feel the anxious tension.

Now place a bag of potato chips in the husband’s hands and picture him munching away as he watches his wife give birth. As if it were on TV. It’s just wrong!

Or picture the man standing in the baptismal with his pastor. He’s wearing a white robe and preparing to confess Jesus as Lord of his life as he publicly identifies with the death, burial, and resurrection of his Lord in baptism.

Then, out from the folds of his robe, he brings forth the bag of chips and starts munching. Never!

“Who gives this woman to be married to this man?” “Her mother and I.”

Munch munch.

No!

These are sacred moments. And in sacred moments, we do not eat. It seems wrong to eat. We don’t think about not eating in the moment — it simply feels unnatural and unthinkable.

Scot McKnight defines fasting as the “natural response of a person to a grievous sacred moment.” McKnight emphasizes that fasting is a natural response.

Like not eating during your wedding vows because the moment is too sacred. Like not eating as you look into the casket at a funeral because the moment is too grievous.

McKnight emphasizes that fasting is a response to a very serious situation, not a device to take us from a good level to a better level. Did you get that?

Read the rest of this excerpt from Scott’s book, Fast Living, at Outreach Magazine

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The eight Millennium Development Goals were adopted by world leaders in 2000 to provide specific benchmarks and a framework for the international community to tackle all aspects of extreme poverty and cut in half the number of people living in extreme poverty (less than $1.25 a day) by 2015.

One of the first targets, reducing by half the proportion of people living in extreme poverty, was reached three years ago … and went unnoticed.

Read “With Little Notice, Globalization Reduced Poverty” at YaleGlobal Online.

“Official estimates of global poverty are compiled by the World Bank and stretch back 30 years. For most of that period, the trend has been one of slow, gradual reduction. By 2005, the year of the most recent official global poverty estimate, the number of people living under the international poverty line of $1.25 a day stood at 1.37 billion – an improvement of half a billion compared to the early 1980s, but a long way from the dream of a world free of poverty. …

“By combining the most recent country survey data of household consumption with the latest figures on private consumption growth, we generated global poverty estimates from 2005 up to the present day. Poverty reduction accelerated in the early 2000s at a rate that has been sustained throughout the decade, even during the dark recesses of the financial crisis. Today, we estimate that there are approximately 820 million people living on less than $1.25 a day. This means that the prime target of the Millennium Development Goals – to halve the rate of global poverty by 2015 from its 1990 level – was probably achieved around three years ago. Whereas it took 25 years to reduce poverty by half a billion people up to 2005, the same feat was likely achieved in the six years between then and now. Never before have so many people been lifted out of poverty over such a brief period of time.”

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I grew up in a tiny South Texas town. By most standards, my family was poor. My four siblings and I had lost both parents by the time I was 5. Our paternal grandmother, Nonnie, did the best she could to take care of us on Social Security and food stamps.

We lived in a subsidized government housing project, were rarely able to keep up with our credit line at the local grocery store, and relied often on the generosity of others to make it through each month.

We always had to find ways to cut corners. Clothes were hand-me-downs or from Goodwill or friends. We made our own Christmas and Valentines cards. (I remember being embarrassed of that as a child, but today, I do it by choice. I love the idea of putting time into creating a unique, personal message.)

When it came to feeding all of us kids, Nonnie had to be very creative. She added crackers to just about everything. Generic saltine crackers were cheap. And they can make meatloaf go a little bit further. Same with hamburger patties and casseroles. We ate a lot of saltine cracker-laden meals in those days.

Recently, I read about how the poor in Haiti have to mix mud in their food to make it go further. Mud. They mix it with flour to make a few more biscuits or simply fry it up with cooking oil or lard and salt to give it a bit of taste. Imagine a mother having to scoop up mud just to have something to feed her hungry children.

I realize just how good my family had it. Even in our poorest condition, we were doing better than billions of people are today. I spent so much of my childhood wondering what it would be like to have a brand-new pair of jeans or to just be able to go to McDonald’s for a burger and fries without breaking the bank. I remember wishing I could buy the same Mickey Mouse Valentines that my friends distributed to classmates.

By age 10, I was desperately wishing to “keep up with the Joneses.” I didn’t realize until much later that we were the Joneses to millions of families living in real poverty. Many would even consider us rich.

This holiday season, I am thankful for the blessings that I have received throughout my life. I’m thankful for saltine crackers and a grandmother who sacrificed so much to care for kids that weren’t even her own. And I vow to be a blessing to those who are truly struggling to survive. Not out of guilt. Not out of some perceived obligation. But because no mother should have to serve mud biscuits to her children.

Because we are the Joneses to a hurting world.

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Who are the Joneses we’re trying to keep up with these days?

Like many Americans, we sometimes find ourselves comparing our lives to those of others. And most often, we look at those who make more and have more than we do.

As the old adage says, we look to “the Joneses.”

But who are the Joneses really?

Consider this: If you make $43,000 a year, you’re in the top 12% of earners in the world.

That’s right. The world.

So maybe we should flip this whole Jones thing over.

Eighty-eight percent of the world is comparing itself to you … and me. WE are “the Joneses” to 88 percent of people on this planet. And yet, where do we most often look for comparison? The other 11 percent.

I’m not saying we should compare at all. We shouldn’t. Life is about much more than material things. But, just for a moment, let’s entertain this thought of keeping up with the proverbial family.

• If you make more than $2 a day, you are the Joneses to 1.2 billion people.
• If you have a warm bed to sleep in at night, you are the Joneses to the billions who are sleeping on cold, hard ground in makeshift huts and tents.
• If you drive a car to work every day, your license plate might as well read “RICH” to the billions who have to walk miles just to get access to clean water, medical care, education or even a food source.
• If you finished high school, you might as well be “Dr. Jones” to those who have no chance of getting an education.
• If you eat three full meals a day, Jones. Jones. Jones.

So should I run out the front door yelling, “I’m rich! I’m rich!” as if I just won the lottery? Probably not. But that’s what the rest of the world may think.

Just a little perspective.

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And then we shared our belief that “references in Scripture to the poor or to poverty should be taken to mean economic poverty,” which is something that we believe can be eliminated in a generation (The Poor Will Not Always Be With You).

Today, Scott Todd, our Senior Ministry Advisor, continues to explain what forms our definition of poverty so you have the basis for our holistic approach to ministry.

Poverty is hunger. Poverty is lack of shelter. Poverty is being sick and not being able to see a doctor. Poverty is not having access to school and not knowing how to read. Poverty is not having a job, is fear for the future, living one day at a time. Poverty is losing a child to illness brought about by unclean water. Poverty is powerlessness, lack of representation and freedom.

This description of poverty includes lack of access to social services, “fear for the future,” “powerlessness” and “lack of representation.” This description shows a broadening of the World Bank’s understanding of poverty, but it does not replace or contradict its own $1.25 per day standard for extreme poverty.

The World Bank has also developed indicators to assess non-income dimensions of poverty. These indicators include education, health, access to social services, vulnerability, social exclusion, and access to social capital.

During the mid to late 1990s, Robert Chambers, research associate at the Institute of Development Studies at the University of Sussex, and others questioned the definitions of poverty and asked who should determine those definitions. The argument was that the poor themselves should define poverty.

How Do the Poor Describe Poverty?

A survey conducted in Niger in 2002 by the Office of the Prime Minister asked the poor of that country to describe poverty. Their answers provided the following:

• Dependence was mentioned by 40 percent of the respondents, with some noting that a poor person always had to “seek out others” or to “work for somebody else.”
• Marginalization was noted by 37 percent, who defined a poor person as one who was “alone,” had “no support,” did “not feel involved in anything,” or was “never consulted.”
• Scarcity was included in the poverty definitions of 36 percent, who used statements such as having “nothing to eat,” a “lack of means to meet clothing and financial needs,” a “lack of food, livestock and money,” and “having nothing to sell.”
• Restrictions on rights and freedoms were associated with poverty by 26 percent of the respondents, who stated that “a poor person is someone who does not have the right to speak out” or “someone who will never win a case or litigation against someone else.”
• Incapacity was mentioned in connection with poverty by 21 percent, including the incapacity to make decision, to feed or clothe oneself, or to act on one’s own initiative.

Only 36 percent of the poor in this survey described poverty in terms of material lack [scarcity]. Here, the poor described the experience of poverty primarily in terms of suffering relationships and lack of belonging, dignity and freedom. Similar descriptions were found in a major World Bank study published in 2000, Voices of the poor: Can anyone hear us?

The poor describe poverty in terms of suffering relationships. Relationships are central to a person’s belonging, identity, affirmation and other socio-emotional needs.

The relational fabric of a person is his or her means for navigating social norms, accessing resources and mobilizing the skills of others toward common goals. “Whom you know” matters a great deal in any context, including that of a poor man [or woman] navigating his way out of poverty.

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“[T]he case can overwhelmingly be made that references in Scripture to the poor or to poverty should be taken to mean economic poverty, unless the passage can clearly be argued to have a different meaning.”

Today, he addresses some key biblical perspectives on poverty.

Several conclusions about poverty are clear from Scripture:

• God does not desire or intend that anyone live in economic poverty (Deuteronomy 15:4).
• God created laws and social practices for His people to minimize the impact of economic disparity by wealth redistribution (Leviticus 25), by the tithe system to ensure food security for the vulnerable (Deuteronomy 26:12), by practices of generosity (Leviticus 23:22), by no-interest loans (Exodus 22:25), and by impartial legal representation as well as other practices.
• God is angered when these laws and practices are not followed and the vulnerable suffer for it. Conversely, God is pleased, hears our prayers, and brings blessing (Isaiah 58) to those who follow these commands and practice generosity toward the poor and who seek justice on their behalf.

These three conclusions offer a foundation for the Christian response to poverty. God’s intent, commands and feelings inform Christian action.

Furthermore, His omnipotence should allow us to believe that the end of economic poverty is possible because “with God all things are possible” (Matthew 19:26).

Many people and organizations view poverty in economic terms. In 1990 the World Bank set a widely used definition of “extreme poverty” as a per-capita income of less than $1 per day. The World Bank revised that standard to $1.25 per day in 2009.

In reflection on what the Bible has to say about poverty and the poor, there is an important event recorded in Scripture in which Jesus is at a party in the home of Simon the Leper. The party was thrown in honor of Jesus in the town of Bethany just a few days before Jesus’ death.

During this party Jesus says to Judas Iscariot and perhaps to the others at the party a phrase that strongly influences common theologies of poverty. Jesus says, “The poor you will always have with you” (Matthew 26:11).

The misinterpretation of this statement has justified a fatalistic belief that, by divine decree, the world will always have poor people.

Yet even an amateur study of this statement shows that it is extremely unlikely that Jesus was decreeing economic poverty as an unchangeable human condition.

Jesus was affirming Mary for her act of worship and alerting His disciples to the limited opportunities remaining to worship Him in person (in His physical presence). He was three days from His death.

In contrast, they would have many future opportunities to help the poor.

Correcting this unfortunate misinterpretation may open Christian imagination to the possibility of ending economic poverty.

Do you agree or disagree?

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Then over the next several weeks we’ll publish a series of posts to help clearly establish what our definition and understanding of the problem is and explain to you the basis of our holistic approach to ministry.

You might expect that such a fundamental and heavily studied concept as poverty would have a universal definition; however, such is not the case.

Common definitions, such as those from Merriam-Webste’s Online Dictionary, define poverty as “the state of one who lacks a usual or socially acceptable amount of money or material possessions.”

Professional and academic descriptions of poverty often include non-income aspects such as health, security/vulnerability, self-respect/identity, justice, access to services, political voice, freedom, social connectedness and so on.

Unfortunately, the absence of a clear definition is a serious problem for organizations whose missions are to eradicate poverty or, in Compassion’s case, to release children from poverty.

- Scott Todd, Senior Ministry Advisor, Compassion International

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How does Isaiah 58 relate to extreme poverty? How does it relate to oppression and corruption? Does Isaiah 58 have anything to do with these topics?

How about its relevance to how we serve the Lord today? What are your thoughts?

1 Shout it aloud, do not hold back.
Raise your voice like a trumpet.
Declare to my people their rebellion
and to the house of Jacob their sins.

2 For day after day they seek me out;
they seem eager to know my ways,
as if they were a nation that does what is right
and has not forsaken the commands of its God.
They ask me for just decisions
and seem eager for God to come near them.

3 ‘Why have we fasted,’ they say,
‘and you have not seen it?
Why have we humbled ourselves,
and you have not noticed?’
“Yet on the day of your fasting, you do as you please
and exploit all your workers.

4 Your fasting ends in quarreling and strife,
and in striking each other with wicked fists.
You cannot fast as you do today
and expect your voice to be heard on high.

5 Is this the kind of fast I have chosen,
only a day for a man to humble himself?
Is it only for bowing one’s head like a reed
and for lying on sackcloth and ashes?
Is that what you call a fast,
a day acceptable to the LORD ?

6 “Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen:
to loose the chains of injustice
and untie the cords of the yoke,
to set the oppressed free
and break every yoke?

7 Is it not to share your food with the hungry
and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter—
when you see the naked, to clothe him,
and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood?

8 Then your light will break forth like the dawn,
and your healing will quickly appear;
then your righteousness will go before you,
and the glory of the LORD will be your rear guard.

9 Then you will call, and the LORD will answer;
you will cry for help, and he will say: Here am I.
“If you do away with the yoke of oppression,
with the pointing finger and malicious talk,

10 and if you spend yourselves in behalf of the hungry
and satisfy the needs of the oppressed,
then your light will rise in the darkness,
and your night will become like the noonday.

11 The LORD will guide you always;
he will satisfy your needs in a sun-scorched land
and will strengthen your frame.
You will be like a well-watered garden,
like a spring whose waters never fail.

12 Your people will rebuild the ancient ruins
and will raise up the age-old foundations;
you will be called Repairer of Broken Walls,
Restorer of Streets with Dwellings.

13 “If you keep your feet from breaking the Sabbath
and from doing as you please on my holy day,
if you call the Sabbath a delight
and the LORD’s holy day honorable,
and if you honor it by not going your own way
and not doing as you please or speaking idle words,

14 then you will find your joy in the LORD,
and I will cause you to ride on the heights of the land
and to feast on the inheritance of your father Jacob.”
The mouth of the LORD has spoken.

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How do you define a miracle? I heard once that it is “a divine or supernatural invasion into human affairs.” Pretty simple explanation, don’t you think?

I find myself praying for miracles every day and they all look and sound quite different. Some are for healing for friends who are sick. Some are for perfect provision for families. Some are for little, personal things like …  returned e-mails. Perhaps that seems trivial or petty, but there has been an e-mail I have been waiting for, hoping for really, for months now. At this point, it would seem like a miracle to get a response.

I don’t know if you’ve heard, but here at Compassion many people believe that we can eliminate extreme poverty in our generation. Let’s put a little more structure in that statement, shall we?

To eliminate means to remove, to expel, to exclude, even to murder.

How big is the problem of extreme poverty? Three billion people worldwide and 1 billion children deep.

You might think we’re “drunk on the spirit,” and that our goal is unrealistic, completely irrational or even not Biblical. I will be honest with you, I thought it was out of reach, too. Truly, I thought it to be an impossible task.

But lately, both personally and professionally, God has been asking me this simple question — “Do you have any idea who I am? I know you think you do. But do you believe that I am the God of the Bible? The one who parts seas, makes rivers in the desert, and brings bread from boulders?

“Do you believe I am a God of signs and wonders? Do you believe I am as big as you tell others I am? Do you believe I still perform miracles, Meredith?”

I wonder if I am the only one who preaches bigger than they pray. I used to be Baptist, which means I get excited when I talk about Jesus and I get loud when I read Scripture. You could say I’m passionate.

But I also play my prayer life safe. I don’t pray big prayers because I’m scared they’re too lofty, too much. And in the event that God would say “No,” to one of my astronomical prayers, I don’t want to be disappointed. So I don’t even risk asking.

Here’s the thing — this is not how we are instructed to pray or live. As Christ kneeled in the garden of Gethsemane, He asked the Lord to take the cup of sacrifice from Him. God said no. But Jesus obeyed, did as He was told, and saved humankind for all time.

We, as believers, are called to defend the poor and needy, to advocate for the oppressed, to fight injustice. If we do as we are told, if we obey God’s call and mandate on our lives, we would be crazy to think that He won’t show up in a big way, being faithful to what He has promised to do.

He cannot deny Himself — and if He is present in your soul, making Himself manifest in your thoughts, words and actions, then He will not deny you or your request.

Pray bigger with me. Pray for miracles. Pray for signs and wonders.

Pray that extreme poverty would come to an end in our lifetime. And after you pray, do something.

It’s not radical …  it’s Biblical.

Editor’s note: Extreme poverty is the severest state of poverty. People living in extreme poverty cannot meet their most basic needs for food, water, shelter, sanitation and health care.

The World Bank defines extreme poverty as living on less than U.S. $1.25 per day, and estimates that more than 1 billion people currently live under these conditions and another 2 billion survive on less than U.S. $2 per day.

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