Article May 22, 2006 Issue

THE PATH OUT OF SPIRITUAL POVERTY

One in a multi-part series of articles focused on God's power to destroy the world's poverty at its roots, featured on spirituality.com

BY JAMES SPENCER

WE OFTEN define poverty in its most basic material terms: the aching lack of food or shelter. But there's also a spiritual poverty that's just as debilitating. It comes as a hunger for friends, purpose, opportunity, status; as lack of ideas, inspiration, innovation; as dearth of sensitivity and affection.

In the industrialized world, people often try to ease these feelings of emptiness through addiction, unbridled spending, impulsive relationships—all of which are ultimately unsatisfying.

We might call this "the poverty of abundance"—the mistaken belief that material goods are a substitute for love. Speaking of this mortal sense of life, the prophet Haggai said, "Ye have sown much, and bring in little; ye eat, but ye have not enough; ye drink, but ye are not filled with drink; ye clothe you, but there is none warm; and he that earneth wages earneth wages to put it into a bag with holes" (1:6).

Enjoy 1 free Sentinel article or audio program each month, including content from 1898 to today.

Send a comment to the editors
NEXT IN THIS ISSUE
Article
Going UP With God
May 22, 2006
Contents

We'd love to hear from you!

Easily submit your testimonies, articles, and poems online.

Submit