Dignity

"The presence of dignity doesn't mean poverty is absent". 

 

I read and reread that sentence about twenty times before the word popped in my head.  Dignity.  What did that mean?  I was puzzled by it's use and even more so by the stigma that was surrounding.  So I looked it up.  Online no less.  First definition gave a standard enough answer, "a state or quality of being worthy of honor or respect".  Sufficient, yet expected, and somehow not enough for me.  I dug deeper.  Praying that God would speak.  And He did.  Well the Internet did.  The second definition listed form the Free Online Dictionary, was "inherent nobility and worth". 

Ah yes, there it is. 

 

That in turn lead me to this passage,

1 Peter 2:9, "But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for His possession, so that you may proclaim the praises of the One who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light".

 

We are noble.  Peter tells us that we are a "chosen race".  He isn't referring just to the people that were dispersed throughout the lands, no, he was speaking to each and everyone of us that believe and have faith through Christ Jesus.  We are the "royal priesthood".  Thus our "inherent nobility and worth", being proclaimed as believers.  How we proclaim the praises of the One who called us out of darkness is our choice.  And there are many options my friends.

 

Being a servant of those that don't know.  That don't have.  That haven't yet heard the calling of the royalty bestowed upon them.  That is how we can proclaim His marvelous light.  Shouting it high from the rooftops and if that isn't an option, how about from behind our computer screens as we read these words?  By simply clicking here and making the choice to embrace the poverty stricken, not because there is no dignity there.  No, because there is.  So much of it.  Because that is where Jesus stands.  With the poor.  The impoverished.  Those crying out in need.  The ones hiding behind the shack.  He is next to the children asking for food.  The widows struggling to provide.  All of the orphans hoping against hope to be chosen.  He has made his choice.  All of them.  Not only that but they are filled with dignity for it.  Full of nobility and worth from a God that is bigger than their poverty. 

 

So let us be present.  Boldly choosing to make a claim for Him.  To share the power of the One who called us out of darkness and into the Light.  Because it is there that our dignity is found.