Article May 29, 2000 Issue

WORKING BUT STILL POOR?

Elise L. Moore

We live in an area of 4 percent unemployment, which is quite low. Most of those who want jobs can find them. However, not all those jobs pay enough to maintain a mother with a child or two or a couple where only one spouse works. The phrase "working poor" probably applies to a significant percentage of the population. It is not uncommon to see someone buy a car and lose it a few months later (along with their down payment) because something went wrong at work and they no longer have a job.

How can one be rescued from economic quicksand? With a new view of God and oneself. God comes first. God is good, the source of all permanent and substantial good. God is present and governs our lives through law, not whim. Loving God and wanting to obey God more than anything else will break the spell of feeling unable to ever have what we need or want. What we need is God not goods. Obedience to God means putting Truth, God, before our desires. It means being willing to do rather than to dream. God knows what we need and will lead us step by step to gain it. But God must come first—loving God more than any thing, trusting that God is good, quieting material desires so we can hear God guide. God governs the future, guides us in the present, and redeems the past. We feel the effect of this as we put Him first, listen to His direction, and follow it.

A new view of God as present, good, and guiding requires a new view of ourselves. Our lives are not governed by chance, fate, or evil. God governs through honesty, obedience, and love. Your Father and Mother is God, the Highest, and God has the highest expectations for you and your behavior. With God as your divine Parent, you were born a blessing. Good has followed you every day of your life, dogging your every step, right when you thought everything was going wrong. Let the Christ catch you and comfort you, change your way of thinking about yourself and your abilities, re-order your priorities. As God's beloved, you are able to do good consistently, regardless of what other people do or say.

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