Privilege: it is a special right, advantage, or immunity granted/available only to a person or group. This can be referred to as white privilege where it can be like unnoticed weightless knapsack of special provisions etc.
It is not what you have done
The privilege I am referring to is the one which one person has achieved after battling all sorts of hardship and managed to remain true to themselves and the God they are serving. For example, the story of Joseph in the Bible. Genesis 37:12-36.
What I am trying to say is this, it is a privilege to go through hardship, as a person of colour, some of us have experienced racism for as long as we can remember and have also experienced other problems like being a Christian or being a woman or being disabled etc. Joseph experienced hardship just because he was his father’s favourite.
Pain can be a reward
What I am saying is this, it can be a privilege to go through pain, it helps you to get closer to God if you channel your anger and pain into the right place. It is okay to be angry, disappointed, hurt, carry feelings of loss, and to feel rejected and unwanted. It is also okay to acknowledge that; you do not feel like you fit in anywhere you go whether at work or church or school. It is okay to acknowledge that, perhaps this is how things are going to be for a long time. I mean, admitting that, “it is what it is”. It will be problematic if you stay angry, in pain and feeling sorry for yourself.
An Intimacy with God
It is a privilege to go through what others have not had an opportunity to go through because if you are a Christian, your relationship with God will grow. After all, you will be forced to go to God to ask for help over and over again to draw out grace in which without Jesus, you know for certain that you cannot carry on living fully. In return, you will benefit God’s favour and His influence which is far greater than what man could offer. The Bible says that we are friends of God, and you being so close to God means that you will get to hear the heartbeat of God compared to those who don’t have to cling to God as much as you do.
No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you.
John 15:15
The fruitful you
Another privilege is that you will produce many fruits. The Bible says that Jesus is the vine and we are the branches and through Him we will produce many fruits. Then Jesus said; “I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing”. John 15:5 It is a privilege that you will be able to produce much fruit because you will be forced to cling to Jesus because, without Jesus, you would struggle to forgive those who persecute you.
Say no to tricks of the devil
The circumstances around us may have been there to discourage us and cause us to walk in resentment and revenge but instead, we should choose to take the discouragement, injustice, and pain to Jesus. The more we do this, the more we produce, 1. a good character in us which is pleasing to the Lord and people around us. 2. we will have compassion towards those who go through similar issues and comfort them as we were once comforted by God. The scriptures say, “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we receive from God. 2Corinthias 1:3-4
Manifest God’s glory in your world
It will help us to grow as sons of God and manifest His glory in the earth because the whole creation is waiting for the manifestation of the sons of God which is you, the Bible says in Romans that, “The creation waits in eager expectation for the revelation of the sons of God”. Romans 8:9. These revelations can be needed at home, at Church, at the workplace and even in the marketplace. You are the game-changer. If you quit today because it is too painful, who will act on your behalf?
The horse story
I do not know whether you have heard of the story of a person who owned a horse which served him well all the time without fail as long as the horse was well enough to do his job. One day the horse fell ill, and it needed medical care. The owner said to himself,” it is too expensive to repair this horse. The only logical solution would be to kill it”. Therefore, he prepared a time and a place to do the alive burial. He went and dug a big hole to bury this horse. Once the hole was ready, he took the horse and pushed it in the big hole, (he could at least kill it first!!!! Anyways…) Then, the owner started to bury the horse with the dirt he dug out. He repeatedly did this until he knew that he had put enough dirt in the hole to immerse him. Meanwhile, the horse was doing something else each time his owner was throwing the dirt in the hole. The horse was clever enough to use the same dirt, to help him step above the bottom of the hole. The more the dirt, the higher the horse had an opportunity to rise above the dirt and came out of the hole that was intended to kill him. The owner obviously did not know what was happening to the horse, but the horse knew what was done to him by its owner, the horse knew if it would act on self-pity, he would eventually die by what is been done to him. It drew the courage from himself and came out of the situation he found himself in.
I will leave you with your own imagination to figure out the endeavours of the horse and the integrity of the owner.
You are not a victim
Give your pain a meaning. Do not suffer in silence. Pain can be a reward if it was channelled well. Use the horse story by letting the networks of Christians and people who love you, help you do this well. Guarding your heart will be the key to running this race well because, in it, there are issues of life. Proverbs says that
Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it.
Proverb 4:23