Humility Road

 I have been going in and out of Chicago recently 2-3 times a week. Driving the Eisenhower Expressway or the toll road makes for a white-knuckle experience. I prefer to take Roosevelt Road all the way in. Filled with stop lights, and at times congested traffic, it feels like a level playing ground for me. I have come under scrutiny for taking this route as it travels through a myriad of neighborhoods, especially once you get into the city proper. To the casual observer, one may be put aback by the scenery. For me, it is God's daily nudge to put me in the presence of gratitude. It is, my Humility Road. 

Where you might see unemployment or lack of ambition, I see opportunity lost. Lost to poverty, lost to circumstance, lost to an abyss of despair. A vicious cycle of generational teaching. They live as their parents before them. Can you imagine looking out your window and all you see is a littered street with grown men loitering and spending their days in idol solitude. 

I know this subject stirs a spectrum of emotions in many, including myself. But for the sake of this particular writing, lets error on the side of compassion. 

It really is thought provoking to look around you seeing poverty at every corner. If nothing else, it stirs in you the thought of, why. Why was I spared this fate? Why are these poor souls defined by their geography? And how. How can they climb out from beneath it. 

I am not frightened by driving through this area of Chicago. I think the real fear is for those that have never known it. My knowledge comes second hand from running a free clinic for 8 years. I came to see my patients as people, and not just blank faces that lined the soup kitchen halls. So much like you and I, they want the same for their children and families that we want for ours. The difference is, theirs seems out of reach and impossible. 

Poverty is not a singular issue, but that of a responsible society. While there are a multitude of programs help give a hand up, they seem to fall short. For some, they no doubt work, but for others they either don't reach them, or mentally the poor are unable to accept them. 

Each of us has a Humility Road. You don't need to travel to the inner city to find it. It could be as simple as the walk from your house to a neighbor who needs help. 

I beg you to consider never turning blind eye. You never know when that person that you reach to is a messenger from God walking your road of humble gratitude.