Remembering the Poor

For the needy will not be forgotten forever; the hopes of the poor will not always be crushed.

Psalm 9:18, New Living Translation

At the close of our church's worship service each week we all join hands in one large circle around the perimeter of the room and say the Lord's Prayer together. Different parts of this prayer seem to hit me at different times, but lately the line "Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven" has been quite prominent. I believe that praying that line involves me as an agent of His will being done here on earth. Therefore, in relation to the above verse in Psalm 9, I must ask myself: "How am an agent of His will toward the poor?"

Which then leads me to question whether or not my heart is even aligned with His on this matter in the first place. I also wonder which "poor" we're even talking about. Would it be the widow down the block on a fixed income? Compared to my standard of living, she's certainly "poor". Is it enough to care about her "hopes"? Or must it extend to the "hopes" of the child in Mexico city who lives at the garbage dump or of the child in Africa orphaned by AIDS or the peasant whose livelihood was wiped out by the tsunami or Katrina evacuees? Or all of them?

I get a little scared about opening my heart to care about all the "poor". Their needs are just too overwhelming. My heart reasons, "It's a no-brainer that I could never even make a dent in meeting those needs." But then that's just the point, isn't it?

"The needy are not forgotten..." might just translate into intentional and earnest prayer on their behalf. I will confess to routinely "forgetting" the needy as I pray. My own life challenges and those of the folks I'm close to often consume my focus and energy. But allowing my concerns to crowd out a deep prayerful concern for the "poor" and their "hopes" limits the degree to which His Spirit may transform my heart. And it also stunts my capacity to be His agent of compassion and mercy right here, right now. To keep this in focus as I form my prayers might just lead to a reevaluation of my own needs, and a reprioritizing of my budget items to enable a greater expression of His compassion through me.

If all of us toward the top of the economic pyramid, together, hundreds of thousands and even millions strong, remember the poor in prayer and then let Him lead us as to how and when to respond financially, from hearts that have adopted His concerns, we might just make way more than a dent.