They were a despised minority in a third-world country.  The father of three died very young, leaving his wife with tiny twin girls and a pre-schooler.  The struggling young wife became overwhelmed and lost her sanity.  The pre-schooler was taken in by an aunt who cared nothing for her and treated her like a household slave.  She wasn’t allowed to eat at the table with the family, receiving only the leftovers after the meal.  One day the aunt threw her a leftover chicken wing and said sarcastically, “Here.  Fly around the world with this!” Miraculously, the little girl grew up and did fly around the world.  Possessing a quick mind, the girl became fluent in five languages.  We met her when she was a young adult, shortly after she had put her faith in Jesus.  Some time later she married a kind and brilliant man who was also a Jesus follower.  Eventually, they went to the U.S. where he graduated college. They returned to serve the poorest of the poor in their own country.  After twenty years of service, they moved to the US with their three children.  All five of them have gone on to accomplish outstanding things such as a high state department position, surgical expertise reconstructing faces, patenting breakthrough technology, advocating for the elderly and the world’s poor.  Raised without privilege, this brave woman pressed on to become a loving wife and mother who encouraged her family to love Jesus and be all they could be while modeling it herself.

This week I watched a short video showing a group of young people in a foot race.  (You can view it thru the link below.)  The race was a visual representation of the concept of privilege.  Privilege has become a dirty word to some.  But in the end, we all want to be privileged.  We want benefits we couldn’t earn.  We want access to resources above our own.  We all want valuable gifts.  We want help.  We even want advantage.  The thing about privilege is that we have nothing to do with it.  We didn’t work for it.  We didn’t deserve it.  It was the result of someone else’s efforts.

Some of us received great benefits from our parent(s) such as feeling loved and seeing family members demonstrate faith, self-discipline, gentleness, and generosity.  Others had no such benefits growing up.  Some had family stability with parents who stayed married.  Many didn’t.  Some attended good schools because they lived in the ‘right’ area.  Some didn’t.  Some had parents that earned enough income to provide a comfortable life free of worry about having enough.  Others of us didn’t.  Some had peace and security at home while others lived in a war zone, either emotionally or literally.  Some were built up by a family that encouraged them, while others were constantly torn down and criticized.  These childhood experiences went with us into adulthood.  Even the good things we earned as adults were to a large extent the result of good things we were given earlier in life.  And some of our bad results stemmed from lack during childhood.

So am I saying that life is beyond our control and we are locked into whatever we were born into?  Of course not.  Here is the reason I know that even the least privileged among us can rise up:  God calls us his own sons and daughters and offers us the privileges of being heirs of his eternal riches.  No matter how lacking our earthly families were, we can enjoy the privileges of being in the family of the Ruler of the universe.  

“Yet the proof of God’s amazing love is this: that it was while we were sinners that Christ died for us.

 Moreover, if he did that for us while we were sinners, what reason have we to fear the wrath of God? If, while we were his enemies, Christ reconciled us to God by dying for us, surely now that we are reconciled we may be perfectly certain of our salvation through his living in us. . . —we may hold our heads high in the light of God’s love because of the reconciliation which Christ has made.”  Romans 5:8-11

“If God is for us, who can be against us? He that did not hesitate to spare his own Son but gave him up for us all—can we not trust such a God to give us, with him, everything else that we can need?”  Romans 8:31

You didn’t feel loved?  “Proof of God’s amazing love . . . Christ died for us.”

You didn’t feel secure?  “If God is for us, who can be against us?” 

You didn’t feel valued? “He that did not hesitate to spare his own Son but gave him up for us all”

You didn’t have enough?  “can we not trust such a God to give us, with him, everything else that we can need?” 

“Moreover we know that to those who love God, who are called according to his plan, everything that happens fits into a pattern for good. God … chose them to bear the family likeness of his Son, that he might be the eldest of a family of many brothers. He chose them long ago; he made them righteous in his sight, and then lifted them to the splendor of life as his own sons.”  Romans 8:28-30

You felt like giving up?  “…called according to his plan, everything that happens fits into a pattern for good.”

You felt unimportant?  “God … chose them to bear the family likeness of his Son”

You didn’t feel good enough?  “He chose them long ago; he made them righteous in his sight.”

You felt like a failure?  “then lifted them to the splendor of life as his own sons.”

According to Scripture, when we’re in Jesus, we have all the privileges of God’s family.  We’re going to inherit life in a perfect world that goes on forever.  We’ll have a strong body that will never experience sickness, a mind unencumbered by negative thoughts, a heart free from pride and fear, and a soul completely clean and open to the wonders of God.  With all this to look forward to, we take courage in the here and now.  The benefits of God’s family start immediately when we trust Jesus.  We don’t have to wait to enjoy his loving companionship, his constant provision, his kind forgiveness, and his patient guidance.  We have immediate access to his overcoming power, his courage, his patience, his gentleness.  His Spirit is continually helping us to do the right thing.

“Since then it is by faith that we are justified, let us grasp the fact that we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him we have confidently entered into this new relationship of grace, and here we take our stand, in happy certainty of the glorious things he has for us in the future.

This doesn’t mean, of course, that we have only a hope of future joys—we can be full of joy here and now even in our trials and troubles.”  Romans 5:1-3

Resources

privilege video race  This short video gives a visual illustration of privilege and our responsibility to help those who have less