A WORD TO THE WISE. Proverbs 28:6 "Poor Folks in A Storm"

Proverbs 28: 6     Better is the poor who walks in his integrity than one perverse in his ways, though he be rich.

Proverbs 28: 6.  In 2005, Hurricane Katrina knocked out power to my entire home county of Jefferson Davis, Mississippi.  It was weeks before any state or federal assistance made its way far enough from the interstates to help my hometown family and friends.   The only 2 banks in the entire county were both shut down because they couldn’t process any electronic transactions.  (You might’ve had a million dollars  in the bank, but you wouldn’t have been able to access a dime of it.)

Folks in my hometown concluded that the rich people up in Jackson (the state capital) and Washington, D.C., didn’t care about the po’ folks down in Bassfield and Prentiss, Mississippi. 

Didn’t matter, though. 

Within hours of the last Katrina-spawned tornado, every country boy with a chainsaw, a tractor, or a truck was out cutting trees off the roads and of the roofs.

People with generators took their neighbors’ meat into their deep freezers, or they hooked up their generator to the air conditioner of the old sister up the road.  Young, healthy families sweat through the month without power so the old and sickly didn’t have to.

Folks fired up the grills and the cook pits.  When all the refrigerated food was gone, people opened up their smokehouses or butchered a hog early.

By the time my little country county realized that the rich folks weren’t coming in a hurry, the poor folks were already taking care of each other.

I don’t have a lot of extremely wealthy friends, and I wouldn’t mind having a few more.

But, I wouldn’t trade one of the country boys I grew up with, not one of the good-hearted but broke brothers I count as loyal friends----- not for a hundred heartless celebrities who might decide at any time that ignoring or hurting me is more entertaining or convenient than coming to my aid.

A poor man you can trust when the lights go out and the money’s not moving is worth a thousand rich guys who might flip on you.

----- Anderson T. Graves II

Rev. Anderson T. Graves II is the pastor of Hall Memorial CME Church

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Hall Memorial CME Church
541 Seibles Rd.,
Montgomery, AL 36116