What does it mean to be in poverty? We often think that poverty means a lack of wealth. However, Greg Birgy of Compassion International says that poverty is something entirely different.
“At Compassion, we really challenge people to consider that the opposite of poverty is not wealth but it’s actually enough.”
If you have enough you aren’t in poverty, but what if you have more than enough? There are two sides to the proverbial coin of poverty.
“We talk a lot about having enough, and the burden that comes sometimes when you have too much. I think there’s a poverty that exists on both sides of that equation.”
Compassion offers an opportunity for those of us who have more than enough to share our abundance with those in need. How can we be in poverty if we have too much?
“I think we are impacted far more than we realize by some of the burden of what has been entrusted to us and how we steward that.”
What is a true definition of poverty?
“At Compassion we talk about poverty as being a lack of opportunities that’s rooted in a lack of hope. You can do a lot of things to change a child’s circumstances, but until you can change them from the inside out, until you can help them to understand the hope that we all have in Christ, that thing that we share in common, they can continue to be beaten down.”
We all are lost if we don’t hold within our hearts the love of Christ and the identity of being one of His children.
“When you instill that hope in a child and help them understand who they are in Christ, and the value that is inherent in that, then they can change their world, there’s nothing that can stop them.”
Release a child from poverty through sponsorship.
Greg Birgy serves as the USA Mobilization Relations Director at Compassion International, a non-profit ministry providing holistic Christian child development to 1.8 million children in 26 countries around the world. Compassion has been releasing children from poverty in Jesus’ name for over 60 years.
Key Scripture: Colossians 2:2-3
Featured Songs: Good, Good Father – Chris Tomlin; Even So, Come – Passion with Kristian Stanfill; God of This City – Chris Tomlin
Compassion International
