Every time I think I am nearing the end of my Stories from Uganda I find that I have more to say. Imagine that! Then I begin to wonder whatever will I write about ever again?!? Now there's a real quandary. Something tells me I'll figure that out....
I still need to write about the day we went back to the prison and pulled teeth for half a day. I mean, how many people can stand up in a room and say " I once worked with a team that spent a day at a Ugandan prison pulling teeth"? There's a real conversation starter.....
But the thing that keeps circling around in my mind is the meaning of poverty. I mean this seems self explanatory, right? We all know what poverty is, what it looks like. However, the thought that I can't escape is that our definition is so very one dimensional. When we think of poverty we think of the lack of material things. And this is certainly one kind of poverty. But there is another kind of poverty as well. There is poverty of the spirit. In Africa we were confronted with both types of poverty. One was the absolute reality day in and day out of our Ugandan friends. The other type of poverty is primarily the domain of those of us from this country and the rest of what we call the western, modern, affluent world. And that is spiritual poverty.
The problem of material poverty is certainly devastating. It is inescapable in Uganda outside of a few affluent neighborhoods in Kampala where the president and some other high placed government officials live. Everywhere you turn there is want and lack. Lack of decent roads. Lack of sewage and waste disposal. Lack of running water. Lack of reliable electricity. Lack of food. Lack of clothing, shelter, medical accessibility. Everything is dirty, broken down, crowded, inadequate by our western standards. And this is the way 95% of the world lives. Think about that for a minute. Only 5% of the world lives as we do. The rest lives like the people of Uganda. Unfathomable.....
Yet, in spite of this, the people we met were spiritually wealthy. Uganda is a majority Christian nation, just as the US is (for the moment anyway). And those we lived among in Uganda were all Christians. But they differed from us in that they were overflowing with the Fruits of The Spirit. Galatians 5:22 describes these fruits or gifts of The Spirit as being "love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, and self control". This is by and large what we experienced from being around our African friends. They possessed all of these gifts in abundance. I read this quote recently which explains it really well. "In a place where people have absolutely nothing, God becomes everything.". This is largely born out by statistics and world wide religious trends as well. In the developing world, Christianity is exploding, while here and in affluent western Europe it is atrophying and losing its relevance and influence within society. I would say that in reference to the quote above that the reverse is also true. In a place where people have everything, God becomes essentially nothing. This is a generalization of course, and there are always exceptions, but by and large, overall, what I see in America is people of anemic faith. We are the " lukewarm" that Jesus refers to in Revelation. We are the consumers of Bonhoffer's " cheap grace". We want all of The Grace of God without any of The Cross of His Son. We are this way about everything. Not only our faith, but everything else in life here in the land of the free and the home of the brave. We want all the benefits of.....( fill in the blank), but nobody wants to pay for it, or sacrifice for it. We are largely spiritually bankrupt in so many ways. Materially rich, spiritually impoverished. If this sounds negative, well that's just the way I see it. To quote my favorite Jane Austen character, Elizabeth Bennett- "I must speak as I find". Lizzy was often busted for her "pert opinions" and I suspect I will be as well. And like Lizzy, I probably won't back down either.....
The good news is that it's not hopeless. Confronting a difficult and painful reality enables you to begin taking steps to alter it. What I have come to realize is the poverty has devastating effects on the spirit. Whether its the material kind or the spiritual kind. And the solution is to become awakened in Christ. This is what solves both of these problems. Because once we are alive in Him we won't settle for the status quo. We will refuse to live in a world where 95% of our brothers and sisters want for the most basic necessities of life. This will no longer be okay with us. We will begin to look at the world thru the eyes of God instead of our own- and His vision is always 20/20. As He begins to occupy more and more of our hearts, the Fruits of the Spirit will begin to spill over into every aspect of our lives, which is surely a good thing for each of us and the greater world around us. It really is true that what the world needs now is love sweet love. I would add this caveat- what the world needs now is Divine Love sweet love, for this is the only thing that enables us to truly love our neighbors as ourselves. This is the remedy for both kinds of poverty...... Shalom!
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