If you're reading this right now on your phone or computer you may be living in a First World country. Whatever your socioeconomic status, you have enough money to be checking out this article on whatever devices you have invested in. And that is not a bad thing. You are fortunate. There are many people in the world who have never once seen a screen. Check your battery. Is it full? Is it low? Is it hooked to a charger of some sort? If the screen suddenly went black and couldn't turn back on, how would you react? This is the issue we are facing today.
Have you ever heard the term "First World problem"? Essentially this infers that you have a situation that is seemingly insignificant when compared to problems people in other parts of the world face. Think about it. Have you ever judged somebody's complaints because of some problem you know of that is "more important?" I know I have, even if I didn't mean to.
A girl I knew faced a dilemma once. She accidentally got eye shadow on a brand new tank top and was absolutely livid. She ranted between rooms about how horrible it was that she hadn't gotten to wear the shirt even once and how impossible it would be to get the eyeshadow out. A million thoughts raced through my head—most along the lines of "why does it even bother her? It's just a little stain. She should calm down. I've seen worse problems than a stained tank top." You can't tell an angry person to calm down though. That usually makes the situation worse.
Anyways, as I thought these things a verse came to mind. "Cast all your cares on him, because he cares for you (1 Peter 5:7)." God doesn't care if your problem is eyeshadow or clean drinking water. He cares for you. Our struggles are equal in his eyes. I looked at her again and reassessed the situation. She was my friend, and she was hurting. I was there to listen, not to judge. And yes, she did get the stain out of her shirt.
Too often we are quick to judge and slow to listen. We see the people complaining and immediately label them as selfish or inconsiderate rather than take into account their feelings. While I agree that sometimes we are, in fact, guilty of complaining too much and thanking too little, I disagree that our minor struggles are insignificant when compared to our major ones. Our difficulties are relative to our current situation, and if your current situation is causing you stress then it is an issue that needs to be addressed with respect and understanding regardless of how it measures up to the rest of the world's problems.
You see, while the starving children in Africa are a very serious problem, they aren't going to have access to the food you can't eat when you're full. While poverty across the globe is something that needs to be fixed, it won't be changed by shaming people who are not impoverished. A dead cell phone may be good for enhancing conversation at the dinner table, but it will not stop global warming in its tracks. Cast ALL your cares upon him, because they all matter. Instead of telling people their struggles are not important, we should be supporting people through all walks of life. It's time to stop shaming first-world problems. They are simply problems. And they matter to God, so they ought to matter to us.
