The Gift of Poverty

Just a note. I set out on my bike ride across Oklahoma on Saturday, June 11th. I have preloaded blogposts for each day, which I hope to edit from the road with my phone. So stay tuned!

Now back to our regularly schedule blog entry:

When I was in Kansas City, I had a discussion with some of the guys in the community there about what spiritual gifts they had. One of them said, “I think I have the gift of poverty.” I kind of dismissed this initially as it is not one of the ones listed in the traditional “gifts passages.” Perhaps it is not a spiritual gift as such as we use those to help others grow, but more a special gift that God gives to some of us. Or a virtue.

But I know what he meant.  He (and others there) chose to work only as much as necessary and live off of that so they could have several free days a week to devote to their ministry and passion.

In my sabbatical readings, one of the books I’m reading is “Monk Habits for Everyday People” by Dennis Okholm. He explores what we as protestants can learn from the Benedictine Rule. Chapter 4 is on Poverty. The Benedictine idea of poverty is not the Franciscan concept of poverty is not the giving up of all things, but more the idea of “common ownership”. Martin Luther says “Goods are not goods unless they are shared.”

Dennis gives the example of nuns who inscribe all their book with “ad usus Sister Margaret” or “for the use of Sister Margaret”. Wouldn’t it be cool to put this in your books and also mentally on your house, car, computer. . . “for the use of Tim Tillinghast” which implies it can also be used by others if needed? (c.f  1 Corinthians 7:29-31 where we are told that those who “buy something” should act “as if it were not theirs to keep.”)

In our "Western Protestant Work Ethic"-molded thinking, we tend to think of wealth as a sign that God has blessed us, but that leads us to wonder, “Why does he bless some more and 'skip' some equally deserving folks.?"We also tend to look at poverty as a sign that people are not trying hard or worse are living in sin. Could it not be as a choice someone has made to allow them to focus on other things. Or perhaps they are simply blessed with the gift of being satisfied with less and wanting nothing.

Okholm suggests that poverty can be a “redirection of our desires to seeking of God and love of neighbor”. It frees us to hear the needs of others and the voice of God and stands as a correction to our “work ethic”. (Compare this with Peterson’s idea that we combat the idolatry of workaholism by keeping Sabbath.)

In his rule, Benedict says : 

“Whoever needs less should thank God and not be distressed, but whoever needs more should feel humbled because of his weakness, not self-important because of the kindness shown him.”

This kind of turns everything on its side, much in the same way that in Corinthians we are told the stronger brother who feels the freedom to eat meat sacrificed to idols, or listen to rock music, or drink alcohol, should make allowances for the weaker brother. It seems counter-intuitive to say that the “weaker brother” is the one who has stronger convictions about partaking in “worldly things”  and also the one who has been blessed with more stuff.

Now, I have been on the road since March and will be through July 18. It is interesting living with just what I can carry in my car (and on the back of it, in the case of my bikes).

It is a season of living with less and being contented with less. But it seems like a lot when I compare with Jesus’ disciples who were sent out without any money and told not to “carry a traveler’s bag with a change of clothes and sandals or even a walking stick.” (Matthew 10: 9-10). Truth be told, there is a lot of stuff squeezed in my car and Wal-mart is just a stop away.

In the book, Okholm quotes Esther de Waal, who says “The weak must have more things than the strong.”

Even when I compare with people who are established here in the US and have been given a lot, I have to agree with Dennis Okholm who says “Some days I am very weak”.

That is because I turn around and go back to Mali where I am at the top of the economic pyramid and need so much more as a “Toubab” to live than my Malian colleague. 

Last year, I helped 2 of my Western colleagues move. They were 2 single women and we had 5 or 6 vehicles there moving stuff all morning. My house would be similar if I moved. On the other hand, I have helped my Malian guard move and you can gather everything up in one load in the back of the car. Even a Malian family with kids can be moved in perhaps 2 loads of pickup.

In the middle of the spectrum are missionaries who come from Central and South America. They can live happily with so much less. The ones I know go out to the village with little and do not come in to town very often just staying out there and doing their work. 

So why is it that my organization makes you justify it if you decide to lower your living quota because you can live more simply? 

I guess the call is to find more simplicity where we are. Can we do with the last generation smart-phone and drive a car a few years old? When we find ourselves oogling over specs for the latest Ipad or Tablet or computer or bike or window treatments, we can ask “And how will this serve the Kingdom of God?”

I close with the words of the old Shaker hymn: Simple Gifts

'Tis the gift to be simple,
'tis the gift to be free,
'tis the gift to come down
where we ought to be,
and when we find ourselves in the place just right,
'twill be in the valley of love and delight.
When true simplicity is gained
to bow and to bend we shan't be ashamed,
to turn, turn, will be our delight
till by turning, turning we come round right.