You are fabulously wealthy.
We are all fabulously wealthy. Well, okay, not all of us. But if you have a computer and internet access and live in the USA, you are almost certainly among the most wealthy in the world. I could go on with stats about that … but you’ve heard them all before.
So don’t argue with me. I’m calling you fabulously wealthy.
Last Friday I wrote about a conversation I had with a young Silicon Valley business leader who asked, “Am I really following Jesus if I spend my time making more money for billionaires? Wouldn’t it be better if I were feeding the homeless or doing something more meaningful?”
There are a lot of right answers to these questions, but here’s my favorite:
“Yes, you really are following Jesus if you spend time making more money for billionaires. And yes, it would be better if you were feeding the homeless or doing something more meaningful.”
The two are not mutually exclusive. In fact, I’d argue that they fit together perfectly. You are fabulously wealthy and have a unique opportunity to do both.
If you have the opportunity to engage the wealthy (and that means most of us, not just billionaires), God can and will use you. If you have the opportunity to engage the poor, God can and will use you. And if you have the opportunity to engage both, God can use you, you’ll learn from both, and you’ll be a bridge between the two.
I call this role a “translator” and it takes a unique person to pull it off. A translator knows how to speak into the lives of both the rich and the poor. They also know how to listen to both, and to translate stories for both.
One of the things I’m most thankful for is that I’m equally comfortable wearing a tuxedo at a formal event … or sleeping in a one-room home with a mud floor in some distant jungle village.
Okay, so the truth is I’m not completely comfortable in either setting! But that’s the point. We’re stretched by such experiences and we become translators. It’s a unique opportunity for those of us who are fabulously wealthy (and that means you).
Consider this. My friend Adrienne Parcher is in Belize right now (she’s a very talented translator). Adrienne wears a lot of hats for PathLight, but a significant role she has is recruiting and training North American teachers to serve in Belize. These volunteers train hundreds of Belizean teachers at the PathLight Teacher Training Conference. (Here’s more information about that program).
The North American teachers often become translators. Not language translators (Belize is an English speaking country), but translators of culture, ideas, hopes, challenges, faith, and joy. They tell the rich what it is like to be poor. They tell the poor that there is hope. They learn as much as they teach. And when they get home, they can’t help but share what they’ve seen and experienced.
Through their volunteer work in Belize they have earned the right to engage the Belizean teachers who struggle with meager resources, but also to speak into the lives of North American friends and colleagues (all of whom are fabulously wealthy). Being a translator is thus a privilege and a tremendous responsibility. It may also be among the most important and enjoyable roles one can ever fill.
So, how about you? Do you want to be a translator? Are you a teacher who wants to be challenged in ways you never imagined? Are you ready to admit that you are fabulously wealthy, should find ways to engage the poor, and develop ways to translate the experience for the rich?