Needs vs. Wants

Needs vs. Wants

I have a routine when I open up the paper on Sunday morning. I try to get it all organized for Susan (she's more of a paper reader than I am. I prefer magazines since they have more substance). One thing I do is throw away all the colored ads -- Office Depot, Lowe's, Best Buy, etc. All but one -- the Target ad. My Susie loves to see what's on sale at Target. So I make that one concession and toss out the rest of those alluring inserts. Why? Because I don't want those advertisers tell me what I "need." It's hard enough battling the temptation within me to buy more stuff without having outside forces whistling at me and saying in essence, "Come over here. You NEED this."

Early this morning when I couldn't sleep, I read more of Richard Swenson's Margin. Here are more of his insightful words in how to find more financial margin in our lives:

Discipline Desires and Redefine Needs. The list of what we call "needs" today is certainly much longer than the list was in 1900, which in turn was much longer than the list at the time of Christ. If the list expands each year, is this an expansion God approves of?...Our true needs are few and basic: we need God, love, relationships with fellow human beings, meaningful work, food, clothing, and shelter. Most of the rest of what we call needs are instead desires...

In this process, we are greatly aided if we tune out advertisements, which are nothing more than artificial "need creation."

"Tune out advertisements." I love that line. I'm happy with my two-year-old Sanyo phone. Do I really need a Razor or Blackberry? The T.V. ads say, "You've got to have it." But I hear my Lord calling me to contentment. The cell phone I now have is a luxury itself. Why must I upgrade it now? Or my computer? Or our 10-year-old van?

The words of 1 Timothy 6 have always given me such a wonderful, God-centered perspective on needs vs. wants. I love how The Message translates vss. 7-8:

"A devout life does bring wealth, but it's the rich simplicity of being yourself before God. Since we entered the world penniless and will leave it penniless, if we have bread on the table and shoes on our feet, that's enough."

Reminds me of the man with little money who sat in front of his piece of bread and bowl of soup and said, "All this, and Jesus, too?"

Jim