Poor.

Our freezer was accidentally unplugged sometime this weekend. We discovered it by the stench seeping under the door from the garage. As I emptied the spoiled meat and other foods, I was thinking "thank you Lord that we have resources to replace some of this". Right there, something I read came to mind. Let me share it with you.

"Is it possible that most of us live hungry and in need...but we just don't recognize it?" - Fredrick Buechner(pronounced Beek-ner)

With plenty to eat in the deepfreeze, or the ability to buy plenty of food; with comfortable homes and a car in the garage; with nice clothes, ipod's and the ability to see a movie/turn on the TV anytime we want to drown life out; we assume that the empty feeling inside is just a case of the blues that can be cured by the weekend, or chillin with friends, or a beer, or the purchase of this or that, or as mentioned, another movie.

The poor, on the other hand, don't have those options and are under no such delusion. When Jesus says, "Come to me, all who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest"(Matthew 11:28), the poor stand a better chance than most of knowing what He is talking about and recognizing that He's talking to them.

In desperation they may even be willing to consider the possibility of accepting His offer. I cannot count the times in my life when the most transforming personal moments come when my ability to duck, dodge, distract and deny are stripped from me. And I have only His quiet and stilling word. Why do we wait till crisis? Why do we wait until the pain we carry inside is too much to bear? Why do we run so hard from the only source of life and healing?

Is it because we can?

When you are poor, you can't. Perhaps this is why Jesus, on several occasions, strangely called them the Blessed.

Jesus deliver us from the cycle of meaningless selfish pursuit - or maybe I should say selfish flight. Let us live with purpose and mission...realizing that we were made to love, and we can only do so when we embrace all that we are(darkness included) and come to Him. It is there that we find light and life.

longing.