poverty

I read this interesting quote this morning.
"It should have become clear that the right response to the good news is not merely about giving money to the poor. The theology of wealth is about true discipleship - one that embraces the poor like Jesus. It is about identifying with those in humber circumstances by giving up one's own priviledges, power and status."
As I read the article I realised that though I give to the poor, what I give is the easy part, money. It's so so much hard to 'identify' to 'give up one's own priviledges'.
As part of the white middle class it is really easy to help from a distance because getting involved is time consuming, is costly, is painful.
The quote is from an article in Grid (see http://www.worldvision.com.au/getinvolved/churchpartnerships/).