The Poor and Spiritual Growth
Dependence,
humility, simplicity, cooperation, and a sense of abandon are
qualities greatly prized in the spiritual life, but extremely elusive
for people who live in comfort. There may be other ways to God, but
oh, they are hard—as hard as a camel squeezing through the eye of a
needle. In the Great Reversal of God’s kingdom, prosperous saints
are very rare.
I do not believe the
poor to be more virtuous than anyone else (though I have found them
more compassionate and often more generous), but they are less likely
to pretend to be virtuous.
They have not the arrogance of the middle class, who can skillfully
disguise their problems under a facade of self-righteousness. They
are more naturally dependent, because they have no choice; they must
depend on others simply to survive.
-Phillip
Yancey, The Jesus I Never Knew
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