God’s Dictionary: Poverty

By on March 9, 2009 in Peace, Spirituality, Success

pauper = poor

This is one of the greatest fears of human beings: poverty. Our current worldwide economic meltdown is exacerbating this fear mightily. I’m not sure we in the West really know what true poverty is.

 There are those in this world—many—who live on less than a dollar a day. Some of us pay five times that for our morning cup of coffee! Some people live in grinding poverty; they cannot begin to see the end of their current experience.

 I do not write about those in need to shame those who are not. The fear is real whether experience backs it up or not. We are afraid of poverty. Its Latin roots tell us why. No one wants to be a pauper, to be poor.

 The Great Nazarene Rabbi, Jesus, tells us that the poor in spirit are blessed because they will be given the kingdom of God. For many years, I struggled with the meaning of “poor in spirit.” The poor in spirit are actually the people who are generous—with whatever they have, no matter how little or how much.

 Haven’t you ever known a family who didn’t have a lot of money but the money they lacked was more than made up for by joy, by presence, by faith? Ask: How can I be poor in spirit and generous with others today?

 Infinition:

Everyone is afraid of poverty, and spiritual poverty is the least desirable kind. Right now, I decide to be grateful for and generous with what I do have rather than focusing on what I don’t have.

About peacecorso

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Dr. Susan Corso is a spiritual author, speaker, and counselor. An omnifaith minister and the author of God’s Dictionary (Tarcher/Putnam 2002) and The Peace Diet, she has had a spiritual counseling practice for more than 25 years. She has been an intuitive since childhood. 
 
Susan’s blogosphere writing may be found at Seeds for Sanctuary, Ode Magazine and The Huffington Post, and Beliefnet. Her website is SusanCorso.com 
 
One of her favorite occupations is writing spiritual fiction. She is the author of The Healing Mysteries of Mex Stone under the pseudonym Shulamith Burton. The audiobook of the first in the series, Oklahoma! Hex, came out in September 2008.
 
Susan is the founder of Sanctuary and ten-year author/publisher of a free e-newsletter, Seeds. As a professor at the accredited College of Divine Metaphysics, she teaches and ordains ministers.
 
Susan has been published in magazines, online magazines and newsletters including Business Ethics, Beliefnet.com, Ode Magazine, Science of Mind, Napoleon Hill’s Think and Grow Rich, New York House, Q-Spirit, Self, and Winning Ways. She is the author of several tape series. Susan also writes for the theatre: The God Show, I Would Never, Fight or Flight, and PeaceWomen. 
 
For many years, Susan was an organizational consultant and motivational speaker guiding nuclear scientists as well as entrepreneurs into their life purposes. Some of her former clients include Westinghouse Hanford Company, Mary Kay Cosmetics, Gila River Casinos, and the American Nuclear Society, among many others.

Today she functions as Chief Spiritual Officer for corporations. She lives in one-sixth of a Victorian house outside of Boston, with her beloved spouse, director/actress/teacher Sheriden Thomas, and the spirit of her familiar cat, Charles of the Ritz. 
 
Her mission in life is peace. 

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One Response to God’s Dictionary: Poverty

  1. asgarubi March 10, 2009 at 12:09 am #

    Very true. After years of never ending pursuit of material hapiness, the economic downtrend has been a blessing in disguise for the grossly materialist Western world, whose influence had corroded the spritual fabric of many Middle and Eastern countires, who were all looking West for inspiration.

    A few years down the line, this present economic downturn will be regarded as a turning point in the development of a better humanity.