Blessed are the humble

Christian impatience should fight for needy

I’ll admit that I’m an impatient person — possibly the most impatient person I know. Most of us get frustrated when the line we choose turns out to be the slow line, when the person in front of us at a red light sits all the way through the green light because he’s messing with his cell phone or when we’re left on hold for what seems like hours on end — and we really can see the minutes ticking away on the phone screen in front of us.

What it comes down to is that we — meaning me, myself and I (and you, too, if you’re like me) — value our time sometimes more than we value others’. I view my own impatience as a serious flaw in my character — a sin — because when I am impatient, I am usually thinking too highly of myself and concentrating on myself rather than others.

I believe I need a good old-fashioned dose of humility. You know, as in, “Blessed are the humble for they shall inherit the earth.” (Matthew 5:5)

Humility is one of those gifts of the spirit we don’t seem to concentrate much on these days. Although we have been taught “Pride goeth before a fall” (a misquote of Proverbs 16:18), our American society is based on the pride of competing, winning and being on top. We celebrate the victory of our independence from England, as well as the victories of our football teams and tout our country as being the greatest country in the world — as in better than anyone else.

Jesus, on the other hand, “Though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited, but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, being born in human likeness. And being found in human form, he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death — even death on a cross.” This is the example Christians are called to follow, and I, for one, do a pretty poor job of humbling myself.

My favorite Bible verse is Micah 6:8, “He has told you, O mortal, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, to love kindness, to walk humbly with your God?”

What does this look like? Doing justice, loving kindness and walking humbly — with humility — with God? One thing it does not look like is thinking you are better or more important than someone else.

Northwest Arkansas is a fabulous place to live and is thriving economically, compared with most parts of our state and nation. But that doesn’t mean that everyone is equally blessed economically. While the face of poverty isn’t as apparent as in urban centers, Northwest Arkansas — Benton and Washington counties — has one of the largest percentages of food-insecure people in our state and nation. The homeless population in Northwest Arkansas has been growing — with many clustering in south Fayetteville due to the existence of programs designed to assist those struggling economically.

Historically, most cities have been demographically segregated, and such is the case in our Northwest Arkansas towns. Some neighborhoods have higher property values than others. But — and this is a significant “but” — that does not mean those who can afford more deserve more. It does not mean neighborhoods with higher property values deserve the protection of those property values — or their property, in general — more than neighborhoods of more modest homes. It also does not mean the marginalized of society should be relegated to specific parts of town — or worse yet,

warehoused as far away from the “nice” part of town as possible.

It is true poverty-stricken areas are ordinarily higher-crime areas, exacerbated when specific neighborhoods are labeled as such and do not receive the amenities of higher property-value neighborhoods — such as sidewalks, good schools, police protection and street lighting.

I am humbled whenever I serve alongside my brothers and sisters who, due to life circumstances, drug or alcohol dependencies, struggles to deal with their experience in Iraq or Afghanistan, mental illness or whatever has brought them to this place in life, cannot — or perhaps will not — support themselves. I am frustrated when trying to help someone find a safe place to stay long-term and there is no available housing. I am enraged when someone is treated as less than human due to their life circumstances, as if he is not worthy of a community’s concern. It makes me impatient

with the situation — an impatience not grounded in personal selfishness.

There are decisions being made by city planning commissions and governments that affect the lives of the economically disadvantaged. As one who sits on one of these boards, it is humbling to me that I am in a position to consider decisions from an ethical perspective, informed by the values of my faith.

The scriptures informing my faith emphasize I am to bring the homeless into my own home: “Is not this the fast that I choose: to loose the bonds of injustice, to undo the thongs of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free and to break every yoke? Is it not to share your bread with the hungry and bring the homeless poor into your house? When you see the naked, to cover them, and not to hide yourself from your own kin?” (Isaiah 58:6-7).

So, could those of us who call ourselves people of faith not find places of refuge in our own neighborhoods for those whose need is so apparent — regardless of what neighborhood we live in, what our property values are and the possibility of crime? All of us tend to be

NIMBY people — “Not in my backyard.” We want multifamily housing somewhere else, not our neighborhood.

Jesus asked, “Who is your neighbor?” Did Jesus ever mean someone just like you, in your income bracket and one-house-per-lot?

Jesus said, “The poor you will always have with you” (Matthew 26:11 and Mark 14:7), but his own ministry was with those same poor, and his teachings were to clothe the naked and feed the hungry.

Although our faith communities, non-profit agencies and governmental bodies — national, state, and local — will never eradicate poverty, we are called to try our best. The “New War on Poverty” of my denomination (Presbyterian Church

U.S.A.) picks up the cry of Martin Luther King Jr. and others who, in the 1960s, declared the original War on Poverty.

I am impatient with our — and I include myself in that “our” — lack of commitment to fight against the causes of poverty as well as to provide assistance to those to whom hunger and homeless is a way of being.

Let us join together in the fight. Let us all be impatient with a world that is unjust, put aside our selfish pride and admit that those of us who have the power to make a change must be the ones to fight for those whose voices are not heard.

I believe that is the call of Jesus Christ. Come to think of it … Jesus was pretty impatient with complacency

and injustice. And Jesus is the model of humility.

LESLIE BELDEN