When is it Good to be Poor?

by Francine Biere
Published January 20, 2006

Blessed are the poor in spirit -Matthew 5:3 Part 1

When is the last time you were able to lift your own spirits? How did you go about doing that? What did you depend on?

The world has made an industry out of lifting our spirits. Turn on the TV and if we aren't entertained and our mind isn't taken off our troubles by watching comedies or something light, we can usually find a program that offers to make life better. In fact, we don't even have to wait for a program – the commercials offer us all kinds of promises.

Look better, feel great, become more popular, make lots of money, have better relationships, find the perfect mate, relieve stress, lose weight, find peace – you name it and there's a product or a method out there that promises to do it for us. Unfortunately, most either give (at best) a false sense of satisfaction or (at worst) a smaller balance in our checkbook.

Moreover, by some chance, if the product or method actually follows through with the promises, they usually don't last. The only thing that stays constant in our life is change. Nothing remains the same. Time passes by and things fall apart, friends or significant others move on, and people die.

We must see ourselves as lacking in this regard … at least when it comes to our spiritual fulfillment, because nothing we do can satisfy our spiritual need. It requires a dependence on God and His meeting this need.

It's interesting that the Sermon on the Mount begins here – speaking about those who are poor in spirit. The truth is, if we don't recognize this in our desire to focus on Jesus, then the rest of His teachings don't fall into place. In other words, if we don't see that we need spiritual filling, then we won't desire all that Jesus wants to teach us. Look at the difference between the world's values and this beatitude.

The world would have us believe that pride is one of the keys to success, happiness, and peace of mind. That may fulfill some for a while, but if we are living this way, we know in our heart, it always takes more to satisfy. Pride always seems to depend on performance and perfection. Those things are hard to sustain.

Performance isn't eternal. That's just fact. Our bodies perform according to the care we give them, but reality is that as we age, our performance slows or fails. Most people face physical challenges – some worse than others. There are people who never suffer a day of being sick or ill – not even the common cold. Nevertheless, at some point, their bodies will betray them. Whether it's by way of disease or just years of use, eventually our bodies will stop functioning.

Perfection is really just an illusion and dependent upon someone else's opinion of us. It also means no mistakes – not ever. Even the most confidant and successful person has to admit that there are always errors. Not that striving toward perfection is wrong. However, only a fool would think that life is perfect all the time. And while some may find deep satisfaction when things run perfectly, there are still those times when, in the darkest night and in the deepest soul, they know it isn't always like that. Moreover, this belief is based on the premise that we can control everything.

The question we need to ask ourselves is this: Do the world's values leave us poor in spirit? Personally, I'd rather be poor in spirit than rich in things that never last. When I admit I'm poor in spirit, then I'm open to the Creator's perfect purposes for my life.

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