What is poverty?

So, how many times have your heard that we are are so blessed in America.  God has blessed our nation in so many ways.  But, with all we have are we better off than other countries that don't have as much?  I'm not sure if we are.  I think we can have too much, and it can become a curse. At times I feel so guilty, just for being an American. Why do I feel like this? The last week has been a journey in answering this question. However, I'm not sure if I'll ever have the real answer until we reach heaven.

 There is much poverty here in Cambodia, but spiritually they might be rich!  A couple of nights ago, I rode my bike past a run down apartment complex, where a family of 5 or 6 might be living in a one bedroom apartment.  This is the reality of how most people here live and probably in most parts of the world.  The construction guys across the street from my apartment have only the clothes on their back.  They work and live in the high rise building, which is under construction.  It might seem like they have nothing, yet they have what they need to survive.  I ask myself, "Would I be content living in a one bedroom shack with only the clothes on my back?"  If I had Jesus, there is nothing else I would need, right?  I would trust God to provide, and He would because He is faithful.  My faith would be so much stronger, and I wouldn't have "stuff" fighting of my affections.  So, I wonder, what kind of blessing America has received from God.  Is it that we have more money and more material things than the rest of the world?  I think not.  I think we can easily become the most spiritually poverished because its easy to rely on money and the things money can buy to satisfy us.  After pondering this for awhile, I thought possibly God has blessed us to be blessing.  We have so much to give!  We also have more religious freedoms than any other place in the World.  We are free to love Jesus!  You may have heard that a thousand times, because I know I have.  But, it's so true.  We are free to love Jesus, and free to spread the gospel to the ends of the world, and with our extensive amount of resources there are endless possibilities.  God has placed each person in this world exactly where He has intended for them to be.  It's not a mistake that I was born in America, or that my friends were born here in Cambodia.  We all have different obstacles and different blessings.  We are all called to love Jesus with our whole hearts in whatever circumstance we find ourselves in.

"Not that I am speaking of being in need, for I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content.  I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound.  In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need."  Philippians 4:11-12