do you hang out with the poor?

What a great question. One that has caused me to really think and reflect on what I wrote myself. It was left as a comment under my last post. Do you hang out with the poor. I had a few thoughts on how to respond to the comment, the first was defensiveness..."of course I hang out with the poor!" after which I would go on to exaggerate the amount of time I spend with the poor. The second thought in response to this might have been, "maybe you misread what I wrote, I said 'let's go find Jesus in the poor...' I didn't say 'I have been, why aren't you?'" Therefore excusing me from having to feel guilty, since I was challenging all of us to do this - including myself. However, I realized the question could be an honest question of how I spend my time, not an accusatory question that insinuates that I don't spend my time with the poor.

The fact that I became defensive bothers me, because I have a heart for people who are poor, and I talk about spending time with them and yet I do not do it. About a year ago I started visiting a mission on a regular basis just to be with people...some issues came up with schedule and the missions request for me not to be there at lunch if I wasn't going to "do" anything. I wish I could say that I continued spending time with poor people because that is important to me, it is disturbing to me that I don't do this much at all (a couple of occasions I have stopped by to see some friends). It is also disturbing to me that I could compose a post such as the one I did, and not have some sort of sense of hypocrisy or guilt.

So, to "anonymous," thank you so much for your question, it is now working in my heart to convict me of the fact that I must respond with my life to my own post.