"What we should be doing..."

This is my blogging prompt from yesterday, that I just didn't have enough time to finish: "What we should be  doing..."

I'm going to start this out by saying that I have been guilty of this at times, so I am truly including myself in the "we" instead of casting any blame on others. But what we should be doing is ending our judgments of people and communities (read: impoverished people) and actually doing something to help...or at least try to find a better system. I get tired of hearing people in Christian circles saying "The decisions they have made landed them on the streets."  Or ""I'm tired of my hard earned money being given as a handout to people who don't try to better their situations. They just use it on drugs and alcohol." Or one of my favorites: "They just need to get off their butts and find a job." 

In case anybody hasn't noticed, we are in tough economic times, and "another 2.6 million people slipped into poverty in the United States last year, the Census Bureau reported Tuesday, and the number of Americans living below the official poverty line, 46.2 million people, was the highest number in the 52 years the bureau has been publishing figures on it. (Tavernise, Sabrina [2011]: "Soaring Poverty Casts Spotlight on ‘Lost Decade’"). With the number of people below the poverty level rising and the number of decent paying jobs lowering, people can't find jobs. And sure, there are some people who abuse the system. They use their welfare money for things like drugs and alcohol, but not all of them, and stereotyping everybody who is impoverished is wrong. 

This past summer I read Tim Keller's book Ministries of Mercy and at the very beginning Keller gives statistics on those below the poverty line. (This book was written several years ago, so numbers would have changed by now.) I was shocked to read though that a large percentage of people below the poverty line were working--or at least working for a job. The problem, though, is that these jobs weren't paying enough for these people to rise above the poverty line. Or else, they were looking for a job, but because they don't have a car (or because of other extenuating circumstances), they can't make it to job interviews. Finally, there's such a stigma with homeless people, that certain companies are unwilling to hire the individual, labeling him/her as "untrustworthy" or "questionable."

So you see, it can be a cycle at times, and rather than stereotyping these people and communities we should get out and do something. Sure, there is still so much to be done to better these statistics, but one person intentionally serving others--rather than trashing them--can make a huge difference. Serve at a community work day (United Way of Greenville has a day like this), serve in a soup kitchen and personally get to know these people and their stories, but whatever you do, stop stereotyping and judging these people based on situations that could possibly be out of their hands. 

(Via: Miracle Hill Facebook Page)