Hidden Riches

I just read an article on the topic of poverty for one of my Home Ec classes.

This astonished me:

In 1999, the UN Development Program estimated that the world's three wealthiest individuals had more assets than did the 600 million people who live in the poorest nations. Yet, a mere 4% of the wealth of the 225 richest individuals would be sufficient to provide elementary education, medical facilities, and adequate nutrition for people in poverty in the world (Held & McGrew, 2000).

I can't even wrap my mind around that.

I could say how our wealth in salvation and reluctance to witness to a spiritually starving and impoverished world reflect an even more ugly truth, but I won't. Wouldn't want to offend the rich or convict myself now, would I?

Prosperity vs. Poverty

Just a smidge from a homework assignment I'm working on--a worksheet on Financial Responsibility for one of my Home Ec classes. The following question got me thinking and praising:

Do you feel prosperity or poverty is more spiritually helpful?
This may be the “easy answer,” and I could be wrong, but I really do believe (from experience & observation) that poverty is more spiritually helpful. You learn what it means to truly sacrifice. You learn that the Lord can see you through anything. You learn to pray and wait. You learn that people can have the spiritual gift of giving and practice it even when they have absolutely nothing. You learn that when it would never humanly make sense for you go to college, you’re going, God’s providing, and you couldn’t be more thankful. You learn a lot of spiritual lessons, let me tell you...