The Poor Are What?!

What2Say2Day? The other day I was talking about the Youth from our church doing community service. I talked about how we were going to the Humane Society to feed the volunteers and staff and how we just went to a Homeless shelter to play with the children. I spoke of how we would like to do more things such as feeding the hungry or school supply drives for a school. One of the people in the conversation made a comment similar to this - "The poor are so lucky." It took everything I had in me to not let my face show what was in my mind (because this is a family-friendly blog I won't say it here either). After the initial shock of that comment subsided I asked her what she meant. "Well, "she said, "People are always doing things for them, aren't they? I mean, when was the last time anyone reached out to the rich to help them with their needs?" I became intrigued. "Interesting point," I replied. I decided to ask a question, hoping to get a little more of her reasoning out. "What do you see as some of the needs rich people have?" Her reply floored me - "They need to be more in touch with what's happening in the world and realize their money can't fix anything, rather it's only in the relationships they ignore that the world we live in will be a better place." Not the reply I was expecting. I have to agree she really hit the point of what "community" service should be. Many times we think it's only the poor and hungry who need help because we perceive them as not having anything. Of course we base this assumption on material things. We, as community servers, usually get upset at the rich for not sharing their wealth more. My friends, it's not their money we need, it's their time and talents. On the other side of that coin the rich feel as though all they have to give is money, so they don't get into the service aspect and build relationships that people crave. Okay, so now what? Here will be my personal challenge for the near future, and I hope yours as well. Let's focus not on material things, albeit with the understanding that is a piece of the puzzle. Let's instead focus on building relationships and finding ways for all people, rich or poor or somewhere in between, to be with one another in love, bringing hope through joy so that peace in the world might actually happen.