Poverty: who allows it?

"Look out there," the street person said, "how could God allow what's going on out there?"

He was pointing to the scene in the alley across from The Lord's Rain -- still crawling with drug dealers, addicts and lookouts: the iconic symbol of poverty in the city of Vancouver. The question, too, was a familiar one, and it's one that's been asked ever since someone broached the idea that God actually loves and provides for us.

Often, discussions around The Lord's Rain dealing with God and Christ are about people genuinely trying to find their way back to Him through the drug-induce haze they've been living in. There are also people like Jeff, Marty, Jack and Joe who know their Bible and recognize it as their source of Hope where the world has let them down. But from time to time, someone will try to validate their life choices either by a bizarre stretch of the Word ("God created everything, so why couldn't a bear be my saviour?" -- honest!) or by dragging a nice, fat red herring across the path -- like the question above.

How, indeed, could a loving and all-powerful God allow crushing poverty among His people?

This just in: He's not the one responsible for poverty. People are. People make choices that many times land them in the state you see on the Downtown East Side. Sometimes, they're not there through any action of their own, but through the actions of others -- abusive parents, teachers or clergy; fetal alcohol syndrome; the economy; lack of education. Jesus says it's not for us to condemn anyone by assuming that the unfortunate state they're in at present is due to sin in the past. When He looked at the man who'd been blind since birth (John 9:1-3), He said that the blindness was not a punishment from God but an opportunity for God's glory to be shown.

More than that, people are responsible for reaching out to the poor and helping them change their lives. People are responsible for choosing whether to do so while guided by the Holy Spirit or by their own intellect ... or whether to do so at all.

I advise, by the way, against doing something while guided by one's own intellect. That usually leads to an unhealthy motive, like human pride at having one's own theory proven or turning a profit at the expense of the poor (which then leads to a situation where the problem is actually perpetuated because one then fears that solving the problem would eliminate the demand and therefore eliminate that profit).

(Einstein once said (maybe it was more than once) that you can't solve problems using the same approach that caused them. Human actions caused the problems that appear on the Downtown East Side; why should we assume that human actions will solve them?)

The fact is, God only allows poverty insofar as He created Evil in order to give Good an opportunity to shine. But as with everything, He calls us to do His work on the earth and is standing by with the power and authority we need to do it. But He also gives us the choice as to whether to respond to that call. So if we don't, and places like the Downtown East Side remain a cauldron of despair, pray that those who don't respond will have their hearts and minds opened ... and don't blame God.