You are filthy rich.

I mean it: you're rich.

Even if you consider your family poor, us in middle-class America, even as teens, have nothing to complain about.

Did you drink clean water today without risk of disease?

Are you wearing a pair of shoes?

Do you have a dry, safe place to sleep tonight?

Will you eat today? You are rich.

Most of us would say, me included, we're just barely getting by trying to live a normal life.

BUT--We can go to Starbucks and pay $4 for fancy coffee if we want too. We can go shopping and spend $30 easily. We can take showers anytime we feel like it. We can go to the movies almost any Saturday. Sounds like we're barely getting by, eh?

The saddest thing is as we drive home from Target, in our 2002 car, we say we need more.

We claim our DVD collections, our Starbucks, our dinner out with friends is part of our regular budget. We work hard, we deserve them. Right? Wrong.

I've read the verses about how it's easier for a camel going through the eye of the needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God. But really, I don't think I'm the one with the problem around here. I do tithe some Sundays. I do sponsor a Compassion kid. But if I, if rich America, doesn't have a problem with riches, WHO DOES? Who is it?

It's not my friend who just bought a designer purse.

It's not my friend who has all the new CDs.

It's not my friend who goes bowling every weekend. IT'S ME. I'm the one shoving my camel's hump through the eye of the needle. I'm the rich fool.

Statistic: "The average person in the US gives only 2.1 percent to all charitable causes. The average Christian in America tithe 2.66 percent of his income to the church. A whopping total of 4.76 percent." Not even the biblical 10% tithe. Wow.

I get one thing, I check it off the list. Move on to the next thing. Possessions in America of overwhelming. We don't even realize it, but they own us.

Ipods, cell phones, TVs, books, Internet, school, job, media.

We live for the next thrill, when we're supposed to be living for the next opportunity to serve.

Statistic: "95 cents of every church dollar stays INSIDE the U.S. Five Cents goes for world missions." What happened, to the overwhelming Love for the church around the world?

We're stick in a drudgery of a march and our possessions are what we're wading through, the more I get the more I want. One more, one more, one more. Soon I'll be paralyzed. Trapped in a big pile of stuff, unable to reach out and help anyone.

I like to think of myself as a poor person. I like to think of myself as a generous person. I like to think of myself as a frugal person. Look at my wonderful finances:

Monthly Teenage Income after paying parentals:: $200

Dress: $30 (It was on sale!)

Starbucks: $15

Gifts: $20

Movies: $12 (FUN!)

Fast Food: $15

Compassion Kid: $38

School Book: $20 (Lost my book =()

Savings: $50

This particular month was a little expensive. I don't normally spent so much on food. I don't normally lose my school books. I don't normally buy....but it's always "something".

In one month alone I spent as much on movies, food with friends, fancy coffee, and a dress as the average person in Ethiopia makes in ONE YEAR. It makes me want to barf. Who's rich now?

I'm not condemning myself for watching that movie out with friends. That was a blast.

I'm under God's grace. But I need to have my eyes open wide to the choices I'm making' and stop believing: 'I'm barely getting by and can't do to much to help anyone else.'

I don't want to be stuck in my stuff. I'm resourceful. I'm hard-working. And biggest of all, I'm sent by God to use my influence, my resources, my love to reach out to the poor and oppressed in this world.

And I don't have to be scared by the huge problems in this world. God doesn't call us to be safe. Nothing scares God. And after all, it's God who's telling me to reach out.

I don't want to be a preacher, I want you to be challenged like I was when I learned this.

So, 21st- century American teenagers, what do we want to do?

-Kate <3

[I've been reading "Hope Lives", an incredible daily devotion telling us why the heck we need nothing and why we need to give everything. Many of these points are from it. Read it. It will change the way you look at everything.]