Poor in Spirit


There has been some spiritual tag-teaming going on with my soul. I have been reading one of the books I received gratis for winning the essay contest Likewise sponsored (an imprint of IVP) The Cost of Community: Jesus, St. Francis and Life in the Kingdom by Jamie Arpin-Ricci. Winning free books? Words begetting more words, like Old Testament genealogy. It will never end.

In the book, Ricci explores the life of St. Francis. I read through the chapter on "Blessed Are The Poor In Spirit." St. Francis and his fellows renounced worldly wealth and were mendicants (learned a new word in reading the book). That is, they were beggars.This morning, in my Calvin devotional, I read his thoughts on being Poor In Spirit. I assume when God pairs St. Francis out of the Catholic tradition with a leading Protestant Reformer, that the ecclesiastical spectrum is covered and He is getting my attention.

Both St. Francis and John Calvin would concur that we are beggars before God for grace. We can give nothing and receive everything. The peril of the rich man, and I think being "Poor in Spirit" does have a warning to the rich--although it is not exclusively or even primarily about money--is believing that anything and everything can be bought, given that one has enough cash in the coffers. Usually the rich are not particularly enamored by the prospects of eternal life. Life is good here and now and money makes it happen.Then, life runs out, even if there are still dollars in the bank. The Reaper always comes for the final withdrawal from this world.

Being Poor In Spirit seems to be a state of lowliness in response to God's highness. We get quite full of ourselves like a pride balloon, and when the adversities of life deflate us downward, we have the opportunity to reflect on our frailty and fragility. Rather than getting into the low self-worth vs. high self-esteem debate, it really come down to just thinking about ourselves less, not less of ourselves. The more unburdened we are of the self, the more we upwardly drift.      


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