Stick it to the man part 1

<sup>How can I, a privileged and middle-class Asian American female, know what it is like to live sub-standardly? To live with hunger and lack as constant states of being? What a grand notion, to be worlds away from poverty, but be somehow drawn to confronting it, thinking that I can make a difference or something. Does that make me naively idealistic?

I've been inspired lately to ruminate about my socioeconomic status and how it is not something neither to be ashamed about when I see begging, starvation and the underprivileged nor proud of when I know I have the spending power to bring myself some material satisfaction. How can I be used to challenge what the world says what I need and have the right to own and instead seek and live out the truth that God is the sustainer of life (and not my things)?

From a book I'm reading by J. Matthew Sleeth:

Ten percent of the women and 3 percent of men in our country need an antidepressant to get through a day, a day with no fear of starvation, invasion or want. What's wrong? We find that we can buy a house, but not a home. We can purchase entertainment, but not contentment. We can travel the globe, but we feel utterly imprisoned. We have degrees, but little wisdom.


Indeed, what IS wrong? Why are we not deeply happy with our fancy phonemP3googletalktouchberries? Why is it that when I used to go on shopping sprees where I would spend hundreds and come back with beautiful and new things, it still wouldn't be... enough?

This summer I was going to learn a lot about poverty and social justice for those living on the fringes of society. But I realized I can and deeply want to make concrete changes RIGHT NOW in the way I think and live that could break down the way the world has dictated how I should live for money and materials. These things aren't mine, they are God's.

What does this mean for what career I will pursue, what kind of neighborhood I will live in, what kind of shampoo I will buy, and even the rest of my life?

And this is just part 1 of my ruminations on how I not only want to say eff it to "the man", but to actively act on how this serves the Jesus of compassion and justice, who had a heart for the poor and was generous and loving on all occasions.</sup>

I end with a very convicting verse from 2 Corinthians 9: You will be made rich in every way so that you can be generous on every occasion, and through us your generosity will result in thanksgiving to God.

Amber