I had a beautiful night tonight. Laughing and eating with one of my best Khmer friends. She has this depth of wisdom that comes out when you least expect it, and a unique blend of humility and strength that is stunning. She always wants to cook for me, and she never lets me pay. She tells me that I have blessed her, so eating good food together is her way of blessing me. And let me tell you, it is one amazing blessing (nothing beats home-cooked Khmer food).
Tonight as we ate our food I told her how scared I was to make new friends in America. I told her Americans don't love so easily like Cambodians. I said most Americans don't want to share about their great joys and sadness unless they already know someone, they don't usually share their lives with newcomers.
She responded without hesitation- "Mercy, it is because people in your country are rich. They have money for everything they need, so they do not know they need people too."
She always has these great one liners that leave me thinking for a while. I realized she is more right than she even knows. Physical poverty and spiritual poverty always seem to balance each other out. Those who grow in physical poverty have a natural inclination for spiritual and emotional depth. they have to in order to survive. On the flip side, when all our needs are met we have no perceived need for spirituality and community. In America, our affluence is our own leprosy. It keeps us from being willing to touch each other and truly connect.
Momma T said it best- "There are many in the world who are dying for a piece of bread but there are many more dying for a little love. The poverty in the West is a different kind of poverty -- it is not only a poverty of loneliness but also of spirituality. There's a hunger for love, as there is a hunger for God.”
Tonight as we ate our food I told her how scared I was to make new friends in America. I told her Americans don't love so easily like Cambodians. I said most Americans don't want to share about their great joys and sadness unless they already know someone, they don't usually share their lives with newcomers.
She responded without hesitation- "Mercy, it is because people in your country are rich. They have money for everything they need, so they do not know they need people too."
She always has these great one liners that leave me thinking for a while. I realized she is more right than she even knows. Physical poverty and spiritual poverty always seem to balance each other out. Those who grow in physical poverty have a natural inclination for spiritual and emotional depth. they have to in order to survive. On the flip side, when all our needs are met we have no perceived need for spirituality and community. In America, our affluence is our own leprosy. It keeps us from being willing to touch each other and truly connect.
Momma T said it best- "There are many in the world who are dying for a piece of bread but there are many more dying for a little love. The poverty in the West is a different kind of poverty -- it is not only a poverty of loneliness but also of spirituality. There's a hunger for love, as there is a hunger for God.”
It's no wonder Jesus chose to live his ministry in homelessness. It makes sense that most of the saints took a vow of poverty. Because there is a richness to life that the west will never know until we remove these golden chains that weigh us down.
