“I want to be dirt poor. I want to have nothing,” said no person ever.

In fact, we do our very best to not be poor. We trade. We invest. We save.  No problem here. The converse to that is that we buy to impress. We want people to not see us as poor. So to prove we aren’t poor, we buy things which give the impression we are doing okay. Ironically, it is these very things which sometimes take us down.

It seems strange then that Jesus calls us to be poor. “Blessed are the poor in spirit” is how He put it. True that is taking life and looking at it differently, but think this through with me. It is Week #1 of Lent. I confess to you right here that I did not say, “I’m going to give up (fill in the blank).” Sadly, the only things we tend to give up are the things we are better off without anyway: sugar, candy, pop, alcohol, etc. Here is an idea to think about! I have never heard someone say, “I’m going to give up always having to be right.” “I’m going to give up my arrogance and pride.” “I’m going to give up watching TV from…say…7-8:00 and use that time to pray and read my Bible.” 

Poor in spirit has nothing to do with money. It has everything to do with humility. It has everything to do with the realization that humility is the pathway to a richer, fuller life. It is remembering the One of whom it was said, “He was rich, yet for your sake He became poor, so that you by His poverty might become rich.” (2 Cor. 8:9)

Lent reminds us to honor the One who gave up so that we might become rich. Perhaps what we should be giving up should actually be used to benefit someone else.

“Father, help me to follow the example of Jesus, in that He was willing to become poor so that I might become rich by knowing the wealth of His salvation.”