We ache and hurt for the poverty in the world that causes physical pain, hunger and disease.  It’s good for us to feel.  It’s necessary for us to be moved, compassionate, to take action to help those who struggle because of poverty.  Sometimes I think I am blind, we are blind, to the poverty that is in our hearts.  That poverty causes just as much pain, just as much disease, but it is not as obvious as physical poverty.  Poverty of the heart is the decay that our heart becomes when we live for ourselves, when we are led by our selfishness rather than selflessness.  It’s a condition that slowly creeps in and takes over a landscape that is naturally lush with color, designed to be taken care of and nurtured. My heart, over the years, has lost that life.  It has been impoverished by my pursuits of what I want over what I need, of what I desire over what God desires. That heart, that was designed to be moved like God’s heart, instead has been moved and weakly pulsating to the beat of society, to the slow, dark, self centered beat of my culture.  I have wanted things over passions, people instead of relationships.  I have become a hoarder of love rather than a dispenser of it.  My heart has become impoverished.  That poverty, much like physical poverty can do, has me in a place of desperate grabbing and clutching at what I can get to try and ease the pain.  I am gasping for air to bring new life to this aching heart living in an unnatural state of want. The answer to eradicate this poverty comes from relationship with Jesus.  He is the answer.  In fact, he is the author of the riches that wait to restore my heart to what he designed it to be.  The blinders of my poverty are removed by his love, by a focus on his heart.  In fact, he is filling me up with his love and restoring the lush colorful landscape of my heart as I focus on him more and more.  May my life be a reflection of that restoration.  I pray that I can keep my eyes on him, my heart in him, my dependence on him as he re-works this heart to be used for him, by him and in him!