Privalege, shame & empathy

Privilege has had me thinking about my own life recently.  I was sitting at my kitchen table talking with my wife this past weekend.  I told her that I had to pinch my self.  She looked at me quizzically and asked me what I meant.  In our life we've struggled alot.  We struggled with money, struggled in our realtionship and struggled with life at many times.  Right now, we aren't experiencing any of these struggles and we're pretty comfortable in life.  What I realized is how privileged we are regardless of how we struggled.  We have a great house, food on the table, heat in our house and jobs that allow us to pay our bills.  It made me feel some shame.  The shame eminated from me taking this privilege for granted and then not sharing my privilege with those on need.  

Empathy has become a huge part of who I've become.  But becuase I haven't taken the next step in reaching out and helping those in need I feel some shame.  How can I truly say empathy is a big part of me if I don't live it in every aspect of my life?  It's like saying I'm a Kung Fu martial artist but I don't train?  

I really like this quote by Theodore Roosevelt.  

"It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat."