WHEN PROSPERITY DISPLACES THE NEIGHBOR

 WHEN PROSPERITY DISPLACES THE NEIGHBOR

Prosperity arrived
with bright windows,
taller buildings,
quicker trains,
and promises
of tomorrow.

The city rejoiced.

The skyline grew.
The headlines celebrated.
But somewhere,
a familiar door
closed for the last time.

A family packed
its memories
into borrowed boxes.

An elderly neighbor
looked once more
at the street
where children
had once played.

A worker
left before dawn,
not to begin the day,
but to begin
a longer journey
away from the city
they had helped sustain.

Prosperity
did not announce
its sorrow.
It simply
raised the price
of belonging.

The streets
became cleaner.

The neighborhoods
became wealthier.

The distance
between neighbors
became greater.

Then the Cross
stood quietly
at the edge
of the city.

It did not ask
how much
the land was worth.

It asked
who was no longer there.

It did not admire
the rising towers.
It searched
for the missing neighbor.

For heaven
does not count success
by appreciation,
but by reconciliation.

Not by acquisition,
but by communion.
Not by exclusion,
but by welcome.

A city
does not become poor
because it lacks wealth.
It becomes poor
when it lacks room
for the people
who gave it life.

The greatest poverty
is not empty buildings.

It is empty belonging.
The deepest wound
is not declining property.
It is disappearing neighbors.

Yet mercy
still walks
the old streets.

It knocks
upon forgotten doors.
It remembers
every name
the market
has forgotten.

For the Kingdom of God
is built
one neighbor
at a time.

And wherever
love makes room
for another,
prosperity
finally discovers
its purpose.

For a city
is never truly wealthy
until every neighbor
has a place
to call home...

Pastor Steven G. Lee
St. GMC Corps
June 22, 2026