To destroy poverty, take a spiritual perspective

Hurricane Katrina and the subsequent failure of the levee systems in the New Orleans area uncovered scenes of poverty that were as shocking to many in New Orleans as they were to the rest of the world.

Though the destruction and tragedies of that August 2005 event were by no means confined to areas of poverty, it did put a spotlight on people who are often forgotten.

Analysts can point to reasons for such poverty: a history of racism, a culture of dependence, a neglect of initiative, inadequate educational opportunities, a climate of indifference from community leaders, and an acceptance of the status quo on the part of all.

I’d like to submit another reason—one that includes all of the above, but puts the situation in spiritual terms, which is where it really needs to be.

This statement from the book of Proverbs in the Bible says it best: “Where there is no vision, the people perish.” To me, this is speaking about spiritual vision that recognizes God’s guiding presence in our lives and sees us as we truly are—the sons and daughters of God.

We get so hung up on the things we can see: the material paradigm, where good is seen as having its source in matter instead of in Spirit.

The material view is always a limited view of a limited pie. It is the belief that there is only so much available in goods or resources or labor. That matter-based laws of supply and demand and distribution of wealth govern our lives. That opportunity and progress are also limited—if you are in the right place or have the right connections, you can make progress, but if you aren’t, there’s no hope.

Hopelessness is the argument of those who lack vision, and for me, the Bible is a great antidote to that argument. It provides numerous examples of people in dire circumstances who were lifted out of them through reliance on divine Spirit, Principle.

Someone once asked me whether the stories in the Bible were just stories, and if the account of Jesus feeding thousands of people with a few loaves and fish was just another story. I don’t think so. Bible stories illustrate the operation of the underlying law, or Principle, that really governs the world.

Spiritual vision of this law, such as Jesus had, reveals that Spirit is an actual reality. An affirmation of its presence changes our experience. This is the view that Christ Jesus must have had when he was so confident of the presence of good that he could feed 5000 people in the wilderness—and take up leftovers.

And more to the point was his recognition that as our thought is brought in line with the unlimited source of Spirit, needed things come into our experience. He said, “Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.”

Throughout my lifetime, an understanding that Bible stories are neither fables nor miracles, but the demonstration of a provable Principle, has helped me find abundance where the worldview would suggest lack.

For instance, when I was growing up, going away to college didn’t seem possible with the financial resources we had, but my mother’s strong spiritual vision didn’t accept limitation as part of the Life which is God. Her conviction helped me accept the spiritual fact that abundance is a law of God, and that this need would be met. I still remember the quiet joy in her face the day she came to my high school class, bringing the letter granting me a scholarship.

Later in life, I had many opportunities to learn that when we measure our good by equating it with matter—with money, things, property—we also limit the expression of that good in our experience, because matter is inherently limited and subject to loss. So when an unexpectedly large tax bill came, I took a spiritual approach. In this way, I found that we had enough resources, and the bill was quickly paid off.

But these experiences also make the point that while poverty may seem to be a community condition, it is actually experienced individually.

Each person who faces lack, whether it be of proper housing, a safe neighborhood, sufficient food and clothing, a meaningful job, does so as an individual. And it is individually that each one has a way out of poverty. This freedom is found in the indisputable fact that each individual in the universe is created by, and is indispensable to, our Creator, the divine Principle, Love.

In countless stories of successful men and women who have risen out of areas of deep poverty, there is one consistent theme: someone had a vision, and conveyed it to them. It may have been a parent or other relative, a neighbor, a teacher. Someone saw more than the limiting picture and conveyed a sense of the possible.

When we remove the ignorance that would hide the spiritual fact of our relationship with a wholly good God, the true nature of each person shines forth in wonder, wholeness, richness, intelligence, and beauty. This spiritual nature is intact in each of us and needs only to be recognized and accepted as true.

Want and lack tend to appear when we forget that the innate nature of man includes all that is needed for abundant and satisfied living. This is because as the very expression of God, all that the Father has is ours.

Finiteness is non-existent in the infinite substance of Spirit. Science and Health puts it so beautifully: “God expresses in man the infinite idea forever developing itself, broadening and rising higher and higher from a boundless basis.” Further on, there is this statement: “As mortals gain more correct views of God and man, multitudinous objects of creation, which before were invisible, will become visible.”

But the vision of God’s goodness comes first. What it shows is that the history of limitation and prejudice cannot really limit anyone. The long story of injustice, ignorance, or lack is not part of the reality of things—it is false information about how the world really works.

The fact is that God’s government is universal, orderly, harmonious. This government of God is in place even where oppressive or ineffectual leadership seems to be.

We each have, in the words of Paul, "the mind of Christ," the conscioussness of God, the undecaying supply of right ideas that is always available, no matter where we are. We are designed to express unselfishness, wisdom, and creativity. Consciousness and experience are inextricably linked, and as we bring our thought more in line with these Christly qualities, we begin to experience the unlimited nature of good demonstrated by Jesus.

The divine Principle that governs the universe, down to the detail of keeping a sparrow safe, is making each of us aware of our full inheritance as a child of God. This is our God-provided right to have and express the fullness of all that God, good, is.

And we can help others, even those we don’t know, through this understanding. In our prayers we can acknowledge the universal presence of the Christ-vision, the Christ-message that God is sending to every heart, and recognize that God is not separate from any of His creation. We are all one with God. This is effective prayer for our neighborhood and the world.

This is the vision that inspires my prayer for New Orleans and for all places where spiritual vision still needs to be welcomed in. God’s promise in Habakkuk is that the vision will not tarry, it will come.

Good is inevitable. Accepting this, we find it—right where we are.

Harriet Schupp is a longtime practitioner of Christian Science in New Orleans, Louisiana. She meets weekly to answer questions and to share insights into Christian Science with young people and those who are new to the study of this Science.

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