Tag: poverty

I was born into privilege. No, I don’t mean the kind of privilege of living with butlers, maids, fancy cars and mansions. I was born into privilege because my family was able to move to the United States when I was a 5-year-old child, and because of that move I was given the privilege of a life that I would not have had in India.

When our family gets together there is always a story or two told of our childhood in India. When my older brothers talk about our childhood home in Kerala with the lush green plam trees and the rice paddies, their stories seem like make-believe. The smells of the open markets filled with fishmongers and the sounds of the honking cars and buses. In our minds, we often go back to the reality of our dirt-floor home without running water or electricity. Kerosene lamps lit the way down the rocky hill to our home at night after prayer meetings and church services  The place where we learned to catch minnows in the creek with our threadbare towels or the well where our mummy drew water for the day.

Strange to remember that life and realize that God allowed it to be the place where I spent my early developmental years. It is also an eye-opening experience to think, “there but for the Grace of God, go I.” What a statement when I think of where I am today and where I could have been, had it not been for God’s great provision in my family’s life. When I think of poverty or what its effects are, it has a personal look and feel because I’ve experienced it as the fabric of my life. My family did not have much, but what we did have were parents who believed in God and sacrificed for a better future for us. I know that today I am at Compassion International as an advocate for children because God orchestrated my childhood to be a starting place for me to recognize need and to empathize with children who do not have the same privilege I was born into.

I was born into privilege, and if you are reading this on your desktop at work or a personal computer at home, then more than likely you were born into privilege also. No, not the “Lifestyles of The Rich and Famous” kind of privilege, but the kind of privilege that we take for granted because we don’t think twice when we turn the knob on a faucet for water or flip a switch for light. Our children are privileged with the requirement and opportunity for an education. We lay claim to the kind of privilege that allows us to walk into clean supermarkets to purchase beautifully packaged foods. We Americans, as a whole, own approximately 40 percent of the world’s wealth but we make up only 2.5 percent of the world’s population. We, my friends are privileged…and with this privilege comes…yes, you’ve guessed it, responsibility. So, as you are looking at these words of mine I have a closing thought. What will you and I do with the responsibility of the privilege we were born into?

As I’ve gotten older, I’ve found that it’s getting easier to set priorities in my life. Some of the things I used to deem important just don’t mean that much to me anymore. And some things that I never valued are priceless to me now. I guess that’s part of maturing.

20 years ago I didn’t know much about global poverty…and therefore I didn’t care about being part of the solution. It wasn’t a priority to me. Today, having witnessed firsthand the suffering of children in developing countries…having heard their tummies growl…and having seen the lack of hope in their sullen eyes, I do care. It’s a priority to me now.

So when I read an online article in the Denver Post from a college student trying to explain why he would rather spend $1,000 on his dog than $51 to feed a starving child on the other side of the world, I took it personally. It was an attack on one of my priorities, after all.  But then I’m reminded that I was in the same place when I was his age.

We’ve still got a long way to go, don’t we? There’s plenty of work to be done, teaching the world that caring for the poor is not an option–it’s an obligation. It’s a mandate from God himself.  

And one hurdle is convincing our neighbors, family and friends that they don’t have to choose between caring for their loved ones…and caring for those on the other side of the world. Those two are not mutually exclusive. We are called to do both.

So my message to the college student–and for those of you who are also struggling with where to set your priorities: do both. You can give hope to a child in poverty and take care of your dog–or your family–at the same time. You don’t have to choose between the two.  You can make both a priority.  Indeed, we are called to do just that.