POOR IN SPIRIT

 

“To be poor in spirit is to feel yourselves as the spiritually needy, even dependent upon the Lord for your clothes, your food, the air you breathe, your health, your life; realizing that no day should pass without fervent prayer of thanksgiving, for guidance and forgiveness and strength sufficient for each day’s need.

“It is indeed a sad thing for one, because of his wealth or learning or worldly position, to think himself independent of this spiritual need. Being spiritually dependent is the opposite of pride or self-conceit.

“Thus, if in your humility you sense your spiritual need, you are made ready for adoption into the ‘Church of the Firstborn’ and to become ‘the elect of God’.

-        President Harold B. Lee, Stand Ye In Holy Places, p 343-4

The greatest path in life to learning what it means to be poor in spirit seems to come through lack. This has certainly been the journey of my life. I have always felt a closeness to God and felt the need for spiritual nourishment which I sought and received through the Gospel, but when I experienced years of financial hardship as a single-mother I learnt what it means to be ‘poor in spirit’, in other words dependent upon the Lord.

I will recount three events in my life that taught me this. The first was when I was newly divorced and just beginning to understand what was ahead of me in the temporal sense. One particular week I needed money which I didn’t have, to fill my car with gas. I prayed one morning for $20 for this purpose. When lunch time came at work, my co-worker came to me and put $20 on my desk. When I asked why, he said he was coming back to work after lunch and saw $20 on his path. He picked up the bill and wondered what he should do with it and I came to his mind instantly.

The second time I needed help was when my household bills amounted to $1,000. Again, I prayed for help. The next day a friend and her business partner knocked on my door telling me that they had just reviewed their accounts for the month which showed a $1,000 surplus. They wanted to know if I could use that money.

The third time, when I was in need, taught me the greatest lesson in being reliant on God. I had to register my car and found myself $320 short. I felt embarrassed going to the Lord in prayer again asking for help so I opted to ask my friend and her husband for a loan. They too were having financial challenges but I felt strongly they were the only ones to ask.

When my friend came back to me after consulting with her husband, she told me that unbeknownst to her, he felt impressed some months prior to put aside all his loose change. He obeyed the impression and saved all his coins. When his wife approached him about my need, he immediately knew where the money for it was. Yes, the saved amount came to $320. They taught me a great lesson that day when they said I didn’t need to repay it because the money was from God and not from them.

I think of ‘the widow’s mite’ story when I think of being spiritually poor (Mark 12:41-44). This woman who had nothing gave all she had, and she knew who to give it to. Do you think she survived well?

How can I explain the lightness of my being,

When you lift me up on wings of faith?

My love for You knows no limits,

My honour, no bounds;

In need I reach for heaven's door,

To concede, in spirit, I am forever poor.

- CATHRYNE ALLEN 

(Art: The Window's Mite by James Christensen)