Our Righteous Stories
Bryant L. Myers has an excellent book, not perfect, but very helpful, which I've just finished. One key theme in the book (which addresses how we serve and help transform poor communities for God's Kingdom) is the similarity of the poor and the non-poor in possessing what he calls a "marred identity."
Part of the marred identity of the poor relates to their spiritual viewpoint of how they got poor and what they're able to do to get out of it. The non-poor have that same problem about their wealth. An inappropriate and idolatrous confidence in "resources" and "money" is part of the marred identity of the non-poor.
Leaving a fuller treatment of the book for another time, I'll simply quote this passage about God's Story from the text, which I found to be compelling:
Another way to help the poor discover their identity is by encouraging them to "find themselves in [the Biblical] story." But we must also witness to the non-poor concerning their identity. We need to help the non-poor "explore and identify their own poverty, to get in touch with what happens when one confuses being with having, or serving with power and control. The non-poor also need to read their story against the story of the Bible. The Bible has good news for them, too, even though they tend to find this hard to believe. The problem for the non-poor is that the cost of being who they really are and doing what they were meant to do is too high. Surrendering god-complexes and using human skill, the power of position, and financial resources LIKE A SERVANT is very hard indeed. This is why the rich young man walked away (Mat. 19:16-22)." (emphasis mine)
Apparently we're hard-wired in original sin to esteem our own righteous stories above God's, whether we are poor or non-poor. What God calls us to do (finding ourselves in His story) is not what we want naturally; we rather fit God into our story.
