UK 805. Food for thought

The longer I do this work, the more I consider the reasons for its necessity. Why do people need extra support and help? Why does poverty exist? Is it ‘fixable?’ Is it inevitable? Is it an unavoidable outcome of the collective human condition?

I’m coming to the conclusion that poverty is a consequence of the collective human condition, in the same way that sickness is, or emotional upset, or violence is. Poverty is a reflection of our spiritual condition. I don’t mean that people in material poverty are spiritually poor, far from it, if that were the case, Jesus would have been spiritually poor, and rather, he was and is the King of Creation. No, what I mean is that some people are in material poverty because all humanity is in spiritual rebellion.

The spiritual rebellion creates all the negative outcomes on Earth, from climate change to pandemics to crime, sexual exploitation, greed, and all the rest. Not everyone experiences the impacts necessarily, but everyone is responsible. It’s our collective rebellion that creates the collective culture and civilisation and this creates the collective experiences, one of which is material poverty.

There’s also an individual responsibility, but this is over stated in our society. Imagine a lady in her 40’s, she was abused as a child, went into prostitution and drugs as a teenager, dropped out of school, become involved in crime and that was her formative experience and social sphere. The drugs, the abuse, the prostitution, all these are social conditions, snares of the 21st century, and inevitably some people are caught in them.

The system has the snares, and the system also tries to release people from them. But the system is poor at that, having only the blunt instruments of prison, rehabs, and a social services that keeps people alive, but still ensnared. The snares attach to aspects of the person, of their psychological and spiritual condition. The system is very ineffective at changing this, so the person is repeatedly ensnared, reoffending, readdicting, and the behaviour doesn’t really change. The longer this continues, the more entrenched they become in that pattern.

That’s their life. Millions of people like that, in the UK. They’re born into a social arena that is covered with snares, and covered with ensnared people, so of course that appears normal, and is normal, and inevitably they also are snared. It’s rare for someone to escape such a situation, and when they do, and go on to become a success, it’s held up as an example of what can be achieved, which in turn suggests all can achieve it.

They can’t of course, because by the time they’re even old enough to understand, they’re already embedded in it, and it in them.

Only a true experience of Jesus Christ can change the person internally, mentally and spiritually, in such a way as the snares are rendered ineffective. It’s rare that happens, but it can, and does. Sometimes.

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