Do we hear the cries of the poor?

Image by Myriams-Fotos from Pixabay 

Almighty God, in every village, town and city, there are hundreds of millions of people who struggle to survive. Most do their best to support them and their families. There will always be those who cheat the system, but You know they are in the minority. Unfortunately, because of the actions of a comparative few, the majority of the poor are treated like the ones who con the system.

Remind us that if our circumstances were different, if we lost our jobs, if our wife, husband, son or daughter died or became chronically ill or permanently disabled, we too like many on the streets, might go spiraling down into despair. We could end up developing addiction to alcohol and drugs to numb our sorrow. We have faith that You will help us through our grief, but we wrestle with our human weaknesses. None of us knows how we would react to any of these events until it happens.

Father, Your children are crying out for relief from the misery of their poverty. Oh, Lord, please hear and answer their prayers for people to help them.

Image by Ravendra Singh from Pixabay 

We know about the poverty in developing countries. We pray for those who at best have one meal a day. We beseech You that You would provide more help for infants, toddlers and children dying a little more each day from the effects of malnutrition. Many are walking skeletons. You can see their bones underneath their skin. People demand that You do something about Your children who are dying. You ask me, You ask others, what are you doing about it?

From ://www.analogforevermagazine.com/features-interviews/gerry-yuam-families-of-the-dump

When a child in Thailand digs through a huge pile of garbage for a piece of rotten meat that’s something we think would never happen in developed countries, but it does every day. Each day people can be seen dumpster diving for food in garbage bins behind grocery stores and restaurants. They look for the food that appears to be okay. What if something is wrong with it? What if it has gone bad? Then, they get sick, sometimes quite ill if they get food poisoning. Still, they take the risk because they have no other alternative. Food programs that feed people on low incomes aren’t as available in towns as they are in cities, where there are more people. Government cutbacks and reduced donations to charitable organizations and churches leave them with a lower operational budget for their food aid programs. If these people searching through garbage bags for food had any other option, they would seize it.

community word on yellow brick wall

Free image from Stanislav Rishniak on vectezee.com

Community is all of us working together to help one another. That’s how we build communities that meet people’s needs. We get to know what they require whether it is food, medicine, shelter, clothes or whatever they need. We can do this more as we listen, and their trust in us grows.

We need to continue meeting together in our communities and address how the poor are being treated. Many exhaust whatever resources are available to them, but are living well below the poverty line. The cost of groceries is escalating beyond the ability of many to afford a healthy diet. If costs for food, groceries and the basic necessities of life don’t go down significantly, more of the middle class will become poor.

Many meals even in developed countries are mainly pasta to fill empty bellies. When a mother on a low income in North Bay, Ontario, Canada, was reported to have to choose between an apple and half sandwich for her and her child that’s wrong. Does she give her son the apple and half sandwich, and go without eating for that meal? Does she give her son the apple and she has the half sandwich? Does she have the half sandwich and give her son the apple? Does the mother cut the sandwich and apple in half and each has a quarter sandwich and half an apple? None of us would want to make those hard choices.

Lord, give the emotional support those who work with the poor need. They see more than most of us ever will. They who look into eyes of dimming hope see that thousand-yard stare from the people they help. Those they help are there physically but withdrawn and guarded emotionally. They believe this will be their ongoing reality. It needn’t be if we offer them the supports they need to live with dignity.

Father, it is as I write this prayer that I hear You saying with earnestness to my spirit, “Kevin, this isn’t right.” When individuals and families are doing their best to bring in as much income as they can they shouldn’t be subjected to these types of rough choices. Would they who make social policy be able to remain healthy and sane if confronted with the choices of this mother? Could they or any of us who don’t have to make these kinds of decisions handle them? What would the lives of ourselves and our children look like faced with such ongoing stress? Would it not be more difficult to be hopeful? When did food banks become part of our infrastructure? I feel God saying to us that we can do better than this in our society.

Photo by Angela Roma on Pexels

The poor have been taught that believing their situation will change is foolish. It is a learned experience from the many who have made their lives tougher to live. They develop a hard edge from being hopeful too many times only to have it shattered. It’s easier to accept the truth that their lives will get worse. They believe another hit to their hope is just around the corner even if it isn’t. They must brace themselves for more bad news.

In the province of Ontario, Canada, if you are on Ontario Disability government support when you turn age 65, your Canadian federal old age security is deducted dollar-for-dollar from your income support. The Ontario government of Premier Doug Ford is doing this to those who are finding it tough to have enough to eat and pay their rent. Some have help from family and friends, but many are without any living relatives. Most of their friends are 65 or over, and live on a small government pension themselves. They have nothing left to give their friends. They don’t have enough money to support themselves.

Lord, what about those who fall in the cracks? Their income is just a little above what a program requires. Do we shut the door in their faces? Do we say, “Sorry, but rules are rules?” Can’t we come up with more creative ways to give them help while still following regulations? Perhaps, we need to change the rules to help more people live quality lives. If there isn’t a program that helps individuals and families who have a little too much income, then we need to create one.

Change the hearts of those who develop policy and the politicians who pass legislation to give people on low incomes more help, not less. I understand from politicians I have spoken with that it’s not an easy job managing a government budget. They have to make choices of who they can and can’t help, and the extent to which they can. Let us pray for them to use godly wisdom as they do that. Grant them good health to carry out their responsibilities.

Father, You gave us beautiful minds. Show us in our communities and in government how we can offer our compassion and practical help to others.

The solutions to poverty aren’t easy. It will take government and community working together to reduce it.

Help us not to give up on the poor. They need advocates who will speak for them. They have become worn down from feeling like they need to justify their existence. They think that the government system that supports them wants them to go away and die, because they cost taxpayers too much money.

Father, You know how even today there are people like the miserly Mr. Scrooge In Charles Dickens’ book A Christmas Carol.

Dickens wasn’t opposed to the wealthy. He felt that they had a social responsibility to share some of their blessings with the needy.

Father, I offer to my readers this scene from A Christmas Carol to elaborate further on this point:

“At this festive season of the year, Mr. Scrooge,” said the [one of the gentlemen], taking up a pen, “it is more than usually desirable that we should make some slight provision for the Poor and destitute, who suffer greatly at the present time. Many thousands are in want of common necessaries; hundreds of thousands are in want of common comforts, sir.”

“Are there no prisons?” asked Scrooge.

“Plenty of prisons,” said the gentleman, laying down the pen again.

“And the Union workhouses?” demanded Scrooge. “Are they still in operation?”

“They are. Still,” returned the gentleman, “I wish I could say they were not.”

“The Treadmill and the Poor Law are in full vigour, then?” said Scrooge.

“Both very busy, sir.”

“Oh! I was afraid, from what you said at first, that something had occurred to stop them in their useful course,” said Scrooge. “I’m very glad to hear it.”

“Under the impression that they scarcely furnish Christian cheer of mind or body to the multitude,” returned the gentleman, “a few of us are endeavouring to raise a fund to buy the Poor some meat and drink, and means of warmth. We choose this time, because it is a time, of all others, when Want is keenly felt, and Abundance rejoices. What shall I put you down for?”

“Nothing!” Scrooge replied.

“You wish to be anonymous?”

“I wish to be left alone,” said Scrooge. “Since you ask me what I wish, gentlemen, that is my answer. I don’t make merry myself at Christmas and I can’t afford to make idle people merry. I help to support the establishments I have mentioned: they cost enough: and those who are badly off must go there.”

“Many can’t go there; and many would rather die.”

“If they would rather die,” said Scrooge, “they had better do it, and decrease the surplus population.”

“Interpretations of “A Christmas Carol” have often tried to turn it into an assault on the wealthy, critiquing capitalism’s effect on society. It is not. There is nothing wrong with being very wealthy in Dickens’ book. The two good men raising money for the poor are capitalists and entrepreneurs. They are “portly” in a time when food was scarce and people starved on the streets.”

The evil in society comes from indifference towards fellow people and a reliance on a governmental system that does more harm than good.” 1

On Ontario Disability and Ontario Works people get letters suspending their income support through no fault of their own. They are often system-generated letters. Then, the caseworkers need to input the needed correction into the computer to stop sending these kind of letters to clients who have no additional income to report. This is done in cases when the individual(s) who are part of the benefit unit aren’t working.

Those who design these letters are removed from the emotional impact they have on those who receive them. Can’t we be kinder towards those who are honest, and report any change in income? Previous suspension letters come flooding back to their minds.. They are made to feel more like criminals than citizens. Caseworkers are put in a policy straitjacket when it comes to helping with the needs of their clients. There is only so much they can do when policy makers restrict their ability to help their clients.

The continued input of people on disability and social assistance needs to be a priority. Then, we could develop more programs focused on lifting people out of poverty. We do have some, but we need more, because the breadth of need is great.

The message I hear from people on government assistance is that their voices aren’t being heard, and they don’t matter.

Several years ago I attended one of the discussion groups about what could be done to improve the Ontario Disability Support Program and Ontario Works. There was unanimous agreement that $500 a month more would make a dramatic change in the quality of people’s lives. They could afford a used car to expand their job search. They could buy groceries on special in larger quantities to put in a freezer. They could get further education to train for a job. They would be able to afford more of the medication costs the government doesn’t cover. Fast forward several years. Social assistance rates are well below the proposed $500 monthly increase while inflation is rising.

I made a number of written recommendations for improvements to ODSP and social assistance. I never got a written reply to them by the then Ontario Liberal government.

Give us eyes to see and hearts that reach out to those who are suffering under the weight of being poor. It looms over them like a grey cloud that follows them everywhere.

Speak to us where we need to change our attitudes towards the poor.

Lord, there are many who suffer in silence. They don’t ask for help. They’re ashamed. They feel they have failed their families and themselves. Many think a character defect is the reason. They listen to those who judge them as being failures for being poor. If only those who judge the poor felt the constant judgments many of them cast upon themselves. If they only knew the tears many who are poor cry. If they only knew the countless times the poor beg You to be merciful, and take them home to end their suffering. If they only heard the screams that come from tormented souls, who plead for You to lead them out of their prisons of emotional and physical pain. .

Will we offer the poor a helping hand up or pass them by?

Have we become so accustomed to the poor being with us always that we are giving up on them?

Why are there people who think the poor have a flawed character?

We need to treat the poor who are trying their best with compassion. We shouldn’t condemn them for their plight

Father, we need to change policies that get people out of the confines of their poverty.The poor are not file numbers or cases. They are people. They are us. Let us never forget that.

Amen.

References:

1. https://www.opportunityinstitute.org/blog/post/a-christmas-carol-sending-the-poor-to-prison/#:~:text=%E2%80%9CMany%20can’t%20go%20there,and%20decrease%20the%20surplus%20population.%E2%80%9D

Dr. Kevin Osborne is the Dean of Psychology and President of Student Affairs for St. James the Elder University. He is s therapist, writer, poet, and singer. He helps people in their inner healing journey. Dr. Kevin Osborne lives in Timmins, northern Ontario, Canada, with his wife, Karen. She is the Registrar for SJTEU. Karen has a B.A. in Clinical Christian Counseling summa cum laude from St. James the Elder Theological Seminary (now St. James the Elder University). She is planning to pursue graduate studies majoring in Psychology and Applied Theology. Karen is a writer and editor, and counselor. Karen and Kevin are powned by their 20-year-old cat, Katherine, a.k.a. Her Royal Furriness, Princess Katherine of Timmins.