HOPE

I don’t recall the date Pastor Paul Slentz invited us to gather and offer our presence downtown to bring attention to the proposed federal budget. It was a stormy day….but many gathered. It represented just one of the tools used to voice our concern for the poor. Their voices are seldom heard through the din that economic power brings.

Yes, if enacted, the present proposed federal budget will become “our” budget…like it or not! I am glad to see responses across the print and online press questioning who the real winners will be. In depth study of an issue has always been wise, but even more so now. Tweets of 140 characters and sound bites of less than a minute cannot properly inform. Wading through the onslaught takes real discernment and intention! Interfacing with legislators with letters and phone calls advocates for those who are not invited to the table.

For many, as with many of the issues now being raised, our lives may change little. But for many more, lives may markedly change. Children may not have food. Seniors may not receive meals, but perhaps more importantly, won’t enjoy the social interchange of a person who cares, knocking on their doors. And on and on. The list lengthens daily, it seems.

So, voices need to continue to be raised….and they are! Not in anger or in ways that don’t invite working together….not in ways that just change what division looks like…but in ways that join us hand in hand to live out those Micah verses:

“He has shown you, O mortal, what is good.

And what does the Lord require of you?

To act justly and to love mercy

and to walk humbly with your God”

Micah 6:8

We can all change the poverty of hope.