Strange times for those used to high times.

Image by Sean MacEntee via FlickrIt's no secret, our economy has been horrible for some time. If you add the number of people without a job and those under employed working part time to those who have quit looking for a job, our real and true unemployment figure comes to 16 percent.

With all these people out of work, we have some interesting things happening. We have people who have been successful and at one time,  made good money but no anymore. Because they have done well in the past, the new found poverty has left a group of folks that don't know how to cope with it; don't know how to access the welfare system; and sadly have too much pride and ego to find the help they really need.

People that have grown up in poverty, know how to play the system to their utmost benefit and take full advantage of everything they can.  For this new class of impoverished people, pride is a huge problem. For example, I know of someone who made big money by thinking big, seeing the big picture and then going out to make it happen.  But now, he has no money and is almost homeless. His problem is he still sees the big picture and continues to try and make the "big score" but can't seem to address the very basic needs of a job, food and shelter.  He could have been working a job six months ago but his pride has killed any common sense notion of getting any job he can find for a regular paycheck. In terms of finding help with welfare, he has two things working against him. One his pride is holding him back and two, going from something to nothing so fast makes the welfare folks uneasy because they have lots of money in their background and they would rather help someone who has been dirt poor for some time. So he's kind of stuck in the middle.

So what do you do? That's a tough one. Pastor Leith Anderson once told me, "never reward dysfunction" and how right he was. The more you give to someone, they more they come to expect it and the more they learn how to take and take without giving back.  All you can really do is pray that things will be better for them. It may mean they have to hit "rock bottom" but that is usually what it takes for someone to transform their life.