With Great Privilege Comes Great Responsibility

I have wanted to write this for a while, but it’s been such a struggle to make out the time. In my head I know exactly what I’d like to say through this post, but I hope I can accurately get the message through in words

My dream had always been to have a really comfortable life and enough money to pretty much do anything I wanted. But I have come to realize that I’d been getting life all wrong

Now there’s nothing wrong with wanting to have a comfortable life, but it’s important to realize that there’s more to life than that. Life is much bigger than our own individual fantasies and it’s very hard to find true fulfillment if we don’t realize this as early as possible. Over the summer, some things happened that made me start to see life differently. The summary is that God answered a cry I made to Him in a moment of deep pain; by speaking to me and encouraging me to seek Him & build a true relationship through Jesus. But that’s a story for another day. In doing this for a bit, He is also teaching me some truths about the ideal way I (and all of us) should look at “life” and our “purpose”. I’m not expecting too many people to agree with me, but here’s what I’m trying to say through this post:

• It’s basically selfish to be unconcerned:

Just by being on twitter, Facebook or even watching the news we all see tragedies happening every day. From missing girls, to people dying of hunger, to children being forced to miss out on education. Even the most heartless person has someone they care about, so we should all be able to feel some empathy towards these situations

• A lot of us are very privileged, and with great privilege comes great responsibility

If you’re reading this article you’re in a better place than so many people just by having a computer or smart phone. One of my favorite super hero movies is the first spider-man movie with Tobey Maguire (so many people actually prefer the newer spider-man movies, please why??) just because of the lesson uncle Ben taught Peter. “With great power comes great responsibility”. Obviously super heroes aren’t real, but we can easily apply this phrase to real life (and that was obviously where I stole the title of this post from). Apart from enjoying the perks, we can (and should) actually use the favorable situations we find ourselves in to contribute to the greater good

• But there’s so much to be done!

This is usually what discourages so many people, because why should you waste your time trying to change little things when it probably won’t amount to anything in the larger picture? But it’s ironic, because this just means there’s actually something for everyone to do! This can directly be related to most of our situations as Africans. A lot of us that grew up back home and moved away have realized how sweet life can be. This should encourage us to want that for the places we call home. You don’t even have to move back home if you don’t want to. But there are so many easy ways you can play a part

• The negatives can be opportunities

As a Nigerian, my country is in a hot mess right now. The economy just shrunk to its lowest point in 25 years- this was before most of us were even born. Despite this mess, Nigeria is statically estimated to be the 3rd most populated country by 2060. Studies predict that by 2020, 50% of the global workforce will be comprised of millennials. This is as exciting an opportunity as it is a challenge. I personally believe we’re in a situation where things must scatter before they are reformed in the proper structure. And whether we like it or not, our generation is going to be the determinant of how things pan out

In conclusion I’d like us to start thinking of ways that we can directly make a change to something bigger than us. If you think well, you’ll realize that it doesn’t have to take too much from you