Home Outreach Leaders Articles for Outreach & Missions Is That Smile on a Poor Person's Face Happiness, or Something Else?

Is That Smile on a Poor Person's Face Happiness, or Something Else?

“If a family has clean water, a dignified home, access to education for their children, and are able to eat and make a living (which many families can achieve in our model), the poverty needle has moved. They will still be classified as ‘poor’ because of their income. But so many of these families are proud of their accomplishments, feel blessed with the improvements in their lives, and are content in their communities, with their farms and future for their children. So, I talk with families about ‘improving the quality of their lives’ rather than moving them out of poverty. It makes more sense to them. That’s what they work for every day.”   

What makes the difference, then, between “blessedness” and resignation? Hope. Hope that arises when discovering a viable path toward a better life, especially for one’s children. Hope that is built on a foundation of small, incremental steps toward self-sufficiency. Hope that is buoyed by personal achievements.

Does income have any bearing on happiness? According to a U.N. commissioned “world happiness” survey, it does. The poll found that the world’s happiest people ranked high in these six factors: real GDP per capita, a healthy life expectancy, having someone to count on, freedom from corruption, perceived freedom to make life choices, and generosity. Real GDP (gross domestic product) is a measure of the productivity of a people (though not necessarily their affluence). Which points again to the issue of hope. Hard work must lead to upward mobility, or hope will begin to flicker. Productive work, not dependency, produces personal satisfaction. Which is also a very good insight for our young mission-trippers to learn.