Looking with New Eyes

 Recently their has been discussions which I have been a part of concerning the poor. It is one of the most critical social issues of our time. With a shrinking middle class now trending towards working poor. Our financial system totally out of proportion, and the existing poor tilting on the edge of being homeless week by week, it seems the plight of our concern, and what we see with our eyes is missing something.

 While I personally agree with the 99% who feel disenfranchised and disheartened with where our economy has been heading, I wonder if all of our eggs should be in one basket, or all of our sight aimed in one area. Are we loosing touch with those who have been affected the most, the poor and working poor. The ones hit the hardest. Where when gas goes up .30 it is a choice between food and the electric bill. When that 30 cents is a decision between medication for an elderly adult or child, or the bus pass for the month.

The politicians and the government are targeted just as much as Wall Street and the Banks. Realistically they should be. However, should 99% of that energy be used to fight that fight? Who is attending to the ones left behind during this fight? Someone has to do it, and a lot of it is being done by local churches and the connecting networks. The ones handing out the food, cooking in soup kitchens, giving fellowship and human dignity to those afflicted. The ones who donate time, energy and of themselves working with the poor. Not because it not only is the right thing to do, but also because it is about a common plight. Those who work with the poor understand a very basic principle.

If you do work along any social justice cause that involves basic human need, there is one common denominator which puts the folks who do this work in shared company. They work with, minister with,  sweat, and toil WITH ! These folks do not give to, work for,  or serve THOSE people. There is no dividing line. It is not us and them. All of those who do this work resolve themselves to community, being in one lane of traffic going in the same direction.

Today I met a woman at the door asking when food distribution at The Open Table of Christ happened.
After giving her the information and polite conversation I asked her if she wanted to come to our service on Sunday at 10:30 am. She seemed hesitant in her response. I told her we welcomed anyone and everyone, that is why it is called "The Open Table ".  She said she would think about it. I hope to see her Sunday morning. I will be looking for her with new eyes. Only because she took the time to have conversation with me, not to me or at me.

So this brings me back to the 99% question. If I were to utilize all or most of my energy protesting, organizing, and voicing displeasure with the system, that would be one less person not working with someone affected by the results of government and big business decisions. Just like in my own life I need balance, I believe and hope all of us would take a look at the balance of how to resolve these issues. The answer to this balance question is unclear, and does not have an easy answer that is for sure. Yet, is putting all our energy, better yet, all of our eggs in one basket the answer. I would hope not.

To do this would only repeat the same mistakes our government, wall street, and that 1% has already done. Looking as THOSE people. Differentiating themselves, from everyone else ,and leaving the poor as forgotten to bear the worse of their decisions. They, as well as all of us, need to look with new eyes. People are people. Look at us, not them. Us is all, them is not to be found. Please, please, start looking with new eyes. A bigger and broader view that encompasses all of who we are, needs to be within our vision. Looking with new eyes creates an image of what can possibly be, rather than what already is.

Jesus did not own a home. He did not spend his time fighting against the 1%. He spent his time with the poor. He wanted to lift them up, make all look to the bigger picture in life by looking with new eyes. He spoke in parables to make you think, to challenge who and what you believe in. Those messages, lessons, and parables are as true today as they were in the time of feeding the five thousand. Society, science , and all of human life has evolved so rapidly in the last three thousand years, yet there were poor back then, as there is now. Unfortunately, a great big proportion of our society still looks with old eyes instead of new eyes. Those people, the them`s of the world. How sad that we can put a man on the moon, watch Snooki become a household name, yet still not be able to stop hunger, injustice, and all the other social dilemmas of our time. Maybe a good place to start, when we do not have all the answers would be "Looking with New Eyes".

EOJ
5/19/2012