THIS IS PART FIVE OF A FIVE-PART SERIES IN WHICH WE WILL BE FURTHER UNPACKING THE CONCEPT OF RELATIONAL POVERTY. THIS IS THE FRAMEWORK WE USE AT CARE FOR AIDS TO DEFINE AND ADDRESS THE POVERTY THAT OUR CLIENTS EXPERIENCE AND THAT WE EXPERIENCE IN OUR OWN LIVES AS WELL.
This week we get to dig into the last of the four key relationships- relationship with creation.
We have seen all of these relationships shift in quick succession in the narrative of Genesis chapter 3, and our relationship with creation is no different. After Adam and Eve break their relationship with God, experience shame, cover themselves, and blame each other, we hear God's reaction. He solemnly reveals the consequences to the couple, saying:
““Cursed is the ground because of you; through painful toil, you will eat food from it all the days of your life. It will produce thorns and thistles for you, and you will eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food until you return to the ground, since from it you were taken; for dust you are and to dust you will return.””
It's here we see humankind's relationship with creation drastically shift. Adam and Eve will no longer thrive alongside creatures and crops in Eden- they are exiled from God's perfect garden. The curse over Adam here is not simply that farming would be hard from this point on- the shift in his relationship to creation is at its heart, a shift in humankind's relationship to work.
Adam and Eve had work in Eden- they named and cared for animals, they tended to trees and harvested their food with delight. We were created to be stewards of creation and to learn what that meant by being in a close, intimate relationship with the Creator. When Adam and Eve were walking alongside God each evening, work was easy. Work was fulfilling and life-giving, it taught them about the character of God. But upon their exile, work became a struggle, and we all experience that struggle today.
When we think about our relationship to work, it's helpful to think of it on a spectrum. Imagine the middle of the spectrum being work as worship- work as it was designed to be in Eden. When work is worship, it is an instrument by which we can care for those under our stewardship and empower our neighbors and communities to thrive.
But very few of us live the majority of our work lives in the middle of that spectrum. Often, we find ourselves living on one extreme end of the spectrum or the other. In one extreme, work is an idol. When work is an idol in our lives, it becomes an end in itself instead of being a means to an end. On the other end of the spectrum is sloth (as the Bible calls it).
We were not created to idolize work, nor were we created to live completely off of the work of others- both extremes on the spectrum display brokenness. The problem is, in the Western world, we have made being a "workaholic" much more acceptable than being "lazy". We acknowledge verbally that it's not good to idolize our work, but we reward ourselves and others when work rules their lives. It has become a cultural badge of honor to be exhausted and busy. Because of this, we often look with disdain on the economically poor, thinking that if they just worked hard enough, they could fix their economic situation. When we think like that in international development (or local development), when we neglect to see our own broken relationship to work, we ask the economically poor to trade one sickness for another. We expect them to become like us- and that is never the goal! The goal is for both the economically wealthy and the economically poor to become like Jesus!
At CARE for AIDS, work is often one of the last things to fall into place for our clients before they graduate from our program. The hard work of healing their own relationships with God, themselves, and others comes first, and when healing happens in those relationships, long-term economic empowerment is possible.
The Lenten season is such a perfect season for us all to assess the areas in our lives where we experience poverty. I challenge you to place yourself in the story of Genesis 3 and reflect deeply on your relationships.
Here's the wonderful news: the last thing that happens in Genesis 3 before Adam and Eve's exile is this:
““The Lord God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them.””
God made the first sacrifice necessary in human history- he killed an animal and used its skins to cover Adam and Eve. As a beautiful bookend to this story in Genesis, God also made the last sacrifice necessary in human history. The Good News of Easter is that, through Jesus, we are covered. Our relational poverty can be healed.