Jitterbugging for Jesus

When you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not reap to the very edges of your field, or gather the gleanings of your harvest.

You shall not strip your vineyard bare, or gather the fallen grapes of your vineyard; you shall leave them for the poor and the alien: I am the Lord your God.

~ Leviticus 19: 9-10

The poor are not the problem: they are the result of all the problems the rich and super rich create.

I get so weary of the poor and powerless people being scapegoated and blamed for all the economic and social ills in America.

Almost every page of the Bible speaks to treating the poor and marginalized (including the aliens) with love and compassion.

If you want to know God — if you want to be transformed into the full image of God through the saving power of Jesus Christ — take time to know the poor and powerless.

Let go of your fear of the poor — they aren’t the people who wreck economies and markets around the world with the reckless manipulation of money in order to make (or try to make) big money.

Let your guard down.

Hear their stories.

Allow yourself to feel as vulnerable as that man, woman and child who struggles mightily every day just to survive.

Empty yourself of all your preconceived notions about the poor and vulnerable.

I noted in my book, The View From Down in Poordom: Reflections on Scriptures Addressing Poverty, that God himself/herself said that in order know God, we must know the poor.

God says it right here.

God said it.

I believe it.

That settles it.