Sunday, August 27, 2006

Meeting God in the Poor

When we are not afraid to confess our own poverty, we will be able to be with other people in theirs. The Christ who lives in our own poverty recognises the Christ who lives in other people's. Just as we are inclined to ignore our own poverty, we are inclined to ignore others'. We prefer not to see people who are destitute, we do not like to look at people who are deformed or disabled, we avoid talking about people's pains and sorrows, we stay away from brokenness, helplessness, and neediness.

By this avoidance we might lose touch with the people through whom God is manifested to us. But when we have discovered God in our own poverty, we will lose our fear of the poor and go to them to meet God.

(Henri Nouwen Daily Devotional August 19,2006)

I cannot help but believe this statement because I have experienced it. With each Journey program, with new and returning guests from the downtown eastside, I see God in these women. They remind me that these are the uninvited guests Jesus welcomed to the table. These are the "poor" that Jesus reminds us are with us, are us, so we can find God

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