Ripple Effect

As you all know, God moved BIG TIME recently at the Hearts and Pockets event at the Earth House. Poverty - both physical and emotional - were discussed and made more aware by the grace of God. Well, God has been moving big time with this event... further than I had expected it could!

I am a part of a scholarship program at IUPUI called the Sam H. Jones Community Service Scholars. Just this passed Friday we had our orientation. We did a lot of fun activities and discussed a lot of topics like Social Justice. During the Social Justice part of the day, we were asked to write down two things that are social injustices that we feel are very important to us...

I wrote down the Water Crisis and Emotional Poverty. Then, our mentors picked a social injustice out of a hat that we had all written down. (mind you, there were around 25 people in the room) - and so mine was picked out first: Emotional Poverty.

Then we were asked to stand in one of four groups. The first group was designated as the group that didn't have a clue what the social injustice we were talking about even meant, and the fourth group was for people who were actively involved in eradicating that particular social injustice. The two others were meant for people that were in between the first and fourth.

I moved down to the fourth group while the ENTIRE rest of the room was down with group number 1. Great... "Here we go, God," I remember saying. "Do your work."

And He did.

The group asked, what emotional poverty is. I explained to them that emotional poverty is just like physical poverty - being without, lacking... but with an emotional twist to it. People who are physically hungry are most likely emotionally hungry too. And no material possessions are going to fill that void. Including food! - that gap in your heart and soul. Faith and relationships and hope are the only things that can help restore what has been lost.

Immediately after I explained what emotional poverty is, the entire room shifted towards me. Everyone has dealt with emotional poverty at some point in time. You don't have to live on the streets and live off of food stamps to suffer from something like this.

Everyone can relate.

After the exercise was over, my mentor asked me, "So, how did you become so familiar with something like emotional poverty and how are you helping to eradicate it?"

So, I shared Ode to him - how we are putting together works of art of all shapes and sizes to publish a book and donate the money. I gave him more detail than that, but you get the picture...

But after I was done telling him, he looked intrigued and excited! He encouraged me to keep going with the project, and to keep working. To quote him directly he exclaimed, "That $%@! [selling a book and donating the money] works!"

God shows up in the most random, wonderful places - not for your glory, but for His. To share, to encourage, to inform, to listen, and help. Be available to Him. I know I'm not all the time... but it's times like these that make me say, "Thank you, Lord. Thank you for letting me do your work. I should probably take you up on your leading more often."

God is moving. Move with Him.

Yours in service,
Joe Spaulding