Not too long ago our almost three year old daughter was having some respiratory issues. She was losing her voice and started having some pretty heavy wheezing in her breathing. It didn’t affect her much during the day, but was getting worse at night until one night she woke at about three in the morning crying and trying to catch her breath. If we had been in the States I would have definitely taken her to the ER in order to get a breathing treatment, but in the early morning hours in the mountains of Haiti, prayer and home remedies are pretty much your only move. We prayed, used essential oils, coached her in breathing, snuggled her and prayed some more. She was able to calm down and then I slept mostly upright with her in our recliner until the sun came up. The next morning we called the Haitian MD at our local clinic and asked if we could borrow their nebulizer equipment and supplies to give Felicity some breathing treatments before bed to help her sleep better and get over this virus faster. The doctor was eager to help and we sent a friend of ours to pick up the supplies by “moto” and had them within an hour. I set up the equipment and gave her a treatment which immediately helped decrease wheezing, helping her breathe easier. We praised God and went about our day filled with gratitude as well as a deep sense of just how privileged we are.
I know not everyone likes to hear or even think about the reality that privilege exists, but it does and it comes in many shapes and forms. It includes race, socio-economic status, country of origin, family connections… so many things. For us, being white Americans raised in the middle class of the midwest, we received the opportunity for higher education… our privilege goes beyond what our neihbors and community in Haiti can imagine! Even in the story that I shared above, the only reason we had the local Haitian doctor’s phone number is because we are friends with the Americans who run the clinic. And the only reason she took our phone call is because of the position we carry in the community which comes from being American. The reason she just went ahead and sent over all the nebulizer supplies with only an explination of what was going on with our daughter is because she knew that we are educated and would know how to give the treatment. We had the money to pay someone to go and pick up the supplies for us. We had the reasoning and research ability to figure out what was going on with Felicity in the first place. I could continue to go on and on, but the reality is that even in this difficult and at times scary situation, being privileged helped it go better for us. This would not be the situation for the general Haitian person in our community.
Now, should I feel bad about the fact that I’m privilged? No. Feeling bad about it doesn’t help our neighbors. I am truly thankful for the privilige that I live in and at the same time I recognize that my experience is not the same as most of the other people in our Haitian community (or really world for that matter). But the question I have been asking myself and need to continue asking myself is how can I use privilege and I would say God-given privilege to elevate those around me? In the areas that I am “blessed,” how can I be a blessing?
In Matthew 25:14-30 Jesus tells the parable of the talents – a wealthy manager (God) entrusts varying amounts of money (talents/gifts/position/privilege) to three servants (His kids) and goes away on a trip. When he gets back from his absence he checks in on His servants and is pleased with the two who brought increase to His kingdom, but is furious with the one who, though he didn’t lose any money, brought no increase. This applies to so many different areas in our lives, but I would suggest that overall it can apply to the privilege (no matter what degree) that we carry on our individual lives. We are not supposed to “bury” the gifts God has given us (influence, ability to create wealth, social status – privilege), but are to use it to help, elevate, honor and bless those around us who are not in the same position. This is one major way to bring increase to God’s “wealth”, to establish more of His kingdom on the earth until the day we see Him face to face. The way of the world is to bury the talents God gave us and keep them only for ourselves trying to eliminate risk in our lives. We are convinced that it is more blessed to save than to give when our Lord Himself demonstrated and commanded the opposite. 2 Corinthians 8:9 says that ‘though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor, that you through His poverty might become rich.’ I don’t want to selfishly hold on to all that I have been given. I want others to benefit from what God, by His grace, has poured out on my life so that they might know Him better and live how He desires them to live. I want all of the privilege that I live in to be an increase to the Kingdom of God in every way. This is part of what it means to follow Jesus. So let’s be grateful for how our “talents” make our lives better but more importantly focus on others and use them to increase the kingdom of God in every way!
-Kirsten