Check Your Privilege

Today I would like to wish a happy birthday to Raiyan Tupas, who turns 5 years old in the Philippines. Raiyan has asthma, loves singing, reading, and playing soccer. He is an amazing kid. He lives with his grandparents in the hillside community of Logpond, Siay, Zamboanga Sibugay. He lives in a bamboo house with dirt floors, and his grandparents get by through working at the market and earning about $35 a month. Raiyan lives with his grandparents because both of his parents abandoned him at a very young age.

I know this all because I sponsor Raiyan through Compassion International. Through the measly $40 I donate in Raiyan's name each month to his family, I help pay for schooling, medical needs, food, Church activities, and community activities for Raiyan. This is not to point to myself but to point out that I pay in Raiyan's name more money than his grandparent's make in a month. They make about $1 a day, and I just spent $3 in a single visit to TCBY to get two waffle cones on waffle cone Wednesday. That's right, this was a bargain and it was about 3 times what his grandparents make in a single day. In America at minimum wage my two waffle cones would cost Raiyan's grandparents about $120.

I say all this to say another thing. Check your privilege. If you are reading this, you are already among the elite on this planet who are literate and have internet access. You are already better off than about 2 billion people on this planet even if you can only barely read this and you are reading from a public library.

My goal is not to put blame on you or to get into a whole mess of "white guilt." I don't believe that is healthy or useful. I tell you this in light of this passage of Scripture: Luke 12:48 "From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked."

The question is, how much has been given to me? The fact is, on a global scale, I am among the wealthy. The seriously wealthy. The ridiculously wealthy. The upper echelon of financial stability. I am told there is nothing I can't do, and that is mostly true. I could have been an astronaut, a Navy Seal, even a pro soccer player if I had pursued it. There was no opportunity denied to me. Anything is possible. This is not true for everyone in the world. It is not even true for every American.

The problem is that we do not want to excuse away our success. I would rather say I am well educated because I am smart. How much does my race come into play? My parents? My financial status? I have things I did not earn, and privileges I do not deserve. The point is not to shame me, it is to put Luke 12:48 into action. I must consider all that has been given to me. That is a lot. My amazing parents who offer me protection and a safehaven. I have an amazing education which has given me strong critical thinking skills and a large range of knowledge masteries.

The list goes on. The best part is to offer these gifts back into the world. If I have a secure financial basis, I can be financially risky. If I have a gifted education, I can offer my mind and what I know to those who do not. I can check my privilege and take inventory of my blessings and then know that I have been entrusted with them to offer them back out to the world.

I can use what I have to serve Raiyan Tupas, who has the same birthday as me, asthma just like me, a love of soccer and reading just like me, but has none of the privilege that I do. I can entrust him with the blessings I have been given, and maybe he will do the same. Maybe we could change the world.