Blessed are the Poor in Spirit

At my church we are doing a three week sermon series on the poor in spirit from Matthew 5. I've always read the beatitudes and thought - "I don't really get this". I'm a 'how to' kind of gal - I want you to tell me how to do something and I never understood how to be "poor in spirit". This spring I started studying Matthew and discovered that Jesus was really turning life upside down when he said these words. He was speaking to an audience that would have been very proud of their religious traditions - who lived in relative comfort and security. They were tempted to think their efforts made them great. Jesus turned that on it's head when he said that it's not those who are powerful but who are poor in spirit who are blessed (which is a happiness that comes from God's favor, not circumstances).

So my pastor mentioned that we are a poor in spirit church - we're weak, we're small. In all of our denomination we're not thought of as great - after years and years we are still a mission church rather than a self-supporting church.....yet this poor and weak church understands one thing - we understand how much we need God. We recognize that it's not our programs, our presentations or our talents that are creating life change - but a rag-tag band of followers living out of great need.

I've found more community and life here than in any church in which I've taken part over the years. As I thought about what Ray had to say about our church, I had to agree. I invite people into our community because we are real people, with real struggles who really need God. I want others to experience that life...the life that comes by entering one another's pain and struggles not to fix them, but to walk through them together.

This led me to my bike ride home from campus today. Whenever I go to Tulane, I find myself not wanting to be poor in spirit but wanting to be powerful and impressive. I want our ministry to grow and to thrive there. I want us to be more organized - to have it more together. I was riding home and thinking why I want that - really it's to build me up....to validate what I do - to grow my own reputation.....to build my own kingdom. I was thinking how delighted God would be to take this little band of followers at Tulane and use them to build his kingdom. It may not be with slick programs or with well-planned gatherings. It may be by bringing together real people with real struggles who understand how desperate they are for God to show up - how poor in spirit they really are. That actually sounds like a movement that I (the real me, the me that knows how helpless and broken I am) would want to be a part of - a place that I could find life.

So my new prayer for our students is not that they would have it all together or be able to do great things but that they would understand how desperatly they need the Lord. That they would live as the poor in spirit.