There's no way to get around it.
I am a man of privilege unequaled on the Planet.
Consider how I lived my life just yesterday.
When I arose, I turned on a switch and voila! there was light.
Incredible! No fumbling in the darkness.
No lighting a candle or even a match.
Light just streamed through my room automatically.
I shuffled sleepily over to the bathroom, moved a faucet lever and behold again! response! water came surging through a labyrinth of clean sturdy piping to do me service.
If I had wanted to, I could drink the water.
When I was ready, I made the water hot without boiling it over a stove or fire.
The chair-shaped bowl located in this room contains its own miracles but I will spare you those details.
I dried my face on a towel that had been cleaned in a machine, not down at the river.
In just minutes of human work, this towel and a whole basket of other items were placed in a huge bucket.
More switches.
More pipes.
More faucets.
Less than an hour later, clean and on the way to being dried.
From there to another machine, clothes were lifted out and lifted in.
Switches.
Heat.
Finished.
Ready to iron or put away.
Did I say iron? Do all civilizations have an electrified piece of metal that flattens clothing into smooth surfaces? Mixers to put foods together? Toasters for that crunchy feel on the bread? Blankets that get warmer when plugged in? The furnace had been running all night at my house.
Did not have to add coal or logs.
Was warm as toast in every room.
One setting of the thermostat works all winter.
Is this privilege or not? My wife gave me a great breakfast.
I ate to my heart's content, then stopped when I was full.
Being the weekend, we decided to get out of the house.
We climbed into our little machine (we have two of them actually), turned on yet another switch, and the machine took us many miles away with no effort on my part except turning a wheel and pumping a pedal.
Being in a different part of the state we could view fresh scenes and fill our minds with good memories.
We stopped at a restaurant and once more ate to our satisfaction.
And then some.
We stopped for ice cream...
So what's this all about? Point made.
Well, it's this thing I have for North Korea.
Bear with me.
If you look at the list above, and think North Korea, you see there is this great gulf between us.
Electricity irregular if present at all.
Water defiled.
Sewage system sadly lacking if existent.
Machines unimaginably expensive - again, if available at all.
Heating.
Food.
Automobiles.
Are you kidding? Restricted travel.
Bondage.
Oppression.
Hunger.
Almost nothing that I did yesterday has ever been done by a North Korean.
So the point? How can I stop being an American? Stop being affluent, privileged, satisfied, fat? It's not my fault I was born here! But the cross of Jesus held before our eyes long enough will help us to focus on the answer God has for individuals.
For me it has been a succession of things.
Give them money.
Send them material blessings.
Realize that our materialism goes too far and cut back on my own lifestyle.
Pray for them regularly.
It may mean for some, even for me, sell all you have and give to them your very life.
Transplant.
Every thing's "on the table".
Only we say in church, "on the altar.
" Being born into privilege is great but it's a great responsibility too.
Maturing believers finally realize that all this "stuff" around them is for someone else, not just themselves.
"To whom much is given, much is required.
" That's when life becomes really fun, when we discover the privilege God has given to His own to share.