Poor in Spirit

Today in the Adult Sunday School Class we started a new study about Following Jesus, our first lesson plan was on "Awakening The Heart". The studies we have been doing has different parts starting with the Focus. Opening Prayer, Community Building, Discovery and Daily Walk.
Focus for today: To discover that our positive response to God's love and Jesus' invitation to follow him rings us into a new experience of what is real, what is important, and what is satisfying. Community building is always a way to introduce ourselves and something they want you to share. The Discovery was from Matthew 5:3
Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
After reading this we were brought to the question of what this means to us especially the words blessed and phrase poor in spirit. It lead to quite a discussion. Blessed we looked up in the dictionary online and came up with these meanings: a. Held in reverence, b. honored in worship c. characterized by happiness or good fortune. There are many meanings these were just a few. For us Blessed was not as mystifying as Poor in Spirit was. We all agreed that when we hear that phrase we tended to concentrate on the word poor.
So my question to you now is what does this phrase mean to you?
The lesson went onto having us pick our a list when we are most open to the spiritual dimension of life and it gave us samples that we were to choose from:
A. When I am experiencing a crisis or loss
B. When I take time to connect with nature.
C. When I hear a good sermon or Bible study.
D. Music or art connects me to the spiritual.
E. When I hear the cries of hurting people.
F. In my quiet time or times of solitude.
G. Children help me the most because...
H. I don't know that I am very open to a spiritual reality. Maybe it's because..
I. When I am part of a worship service.
J. Other
All these made us stop to think about when we do connect and why. For all of us we had one that was the most but also felt all of them in one way or another was times we connect.
When do you feel you are connected most with the spiritual dimension of life and why?
We still were not sure we understood what the phrase Poor in Spirit meant, still we kept thinking of the word poor and thinking of this as meaning someone needy. So we went onto the next portion of our study this one asked us: In your opinion, what hinders many people from being "poor in spirit" or to open to God's presence and direction. What? We still were stuck on poor but this now made it sound like "poor in spirit" was something we wanted to be. Why would we want to b "poor in spirit"?  We still were concentrating on the word poor and what we all conceived poor to mean and for most of us we don't want to be poor if we can help it. So now that challenge was to read the following and figure how these things could hinder a person from being "poor in spirit":

• Their upbringing in the home didn't emphasize it.
• The pull of materialism or prosperity.
• Religion is seen as following rules or beliefs rather then healthy relationships.
• Easier to conform to the expectations of others.
• Needing God's help is seen as a weakness.
• Inadequate teaching from the church.
• Only the material word is real or important.
• Other.
• Think of ways you have been blessed (satisfied) by being aware of moments of spiritual transformation or amazement. For example, the story told in a sermon or movie, being changed through prayer, taking time to listen or help. What has helped to awaken your heart.

Now our challenge to you is come up with your answers to these questions we had and start discussing the answers. It will be quite interesting what answers you come up with. I was going to put the Daily Walk: thought for the journey on now but since it actually answers some of your questions I think I might leave if off for now in order to get a better discussion going. I will then post it later. Please join in and give your thoughts. Questions again are:
So my question to you now is what does this phrase mean to you?
When do you feel you are connected most with the spiritual dimension of life and why?