Wants and needs. I overheard my kids talking about them
the other day. Isaac NEEDED the “super special thing” that Emily was using. If
you know him at all, NEEDED was definitely in all caps. Emily looked him square
in the eye and said, “Isaac. In life there are needs and there are wants. What
you have is a want, not a need. You need to learn the difference.” Um. Wow kid!
(Did Isaac respond well to that? Well, that’s another story.)
As cute a truth as it is coming from an eight year old,
it’s something that I’ve been forced to think about a ton these days. It’s been
six months since Josh lost his job and two months of living beyond the bottom
of the barrel. I’ve never considered myself materialistic or a shopaholic. Most
of what we have is discounted or second hand. But I am used to living in the
luxury of many wants being met. If I have an itch to go shopping, I just pop on
into Value Village and fill it. If I am stressed or it’s a hot day, I zip through the
drive thru of McD’s and grab an iced coffee. If I see a cute pair of flip flops or
a package of Sharpies at Costco or a special coloring book to keep the kids
happy on a road trip or a bulk package of sunscreen….on and on it goes….I’m good
at satisfying my wants (as harmless as they are).
But lately? Lately the wants are not even the issue. It’s
the needs. And I’ll admit, it’s easy to have a little tantrum – lots of little
(or not so little) tantrums about the situation.
The thing that’s so amazing, the reason that I’m sharing
some thoughts at all is that I have been completely blown away by God meeting
our family’s needs. Day after day, He knows and He provides. It is humbling and
thrilling all in one. God is providing through my hard working hubby who is
chasing odd jobs around the clock and I’m very thankful for his perseverance.
And a surprising part of how He is providing is in the unexpected – the
impossible to anticipate or earn. He has used the church, random strangers, the
compassion of all sorts of people to show us that he knows our NEEDS (and even
though it’s scary trusting him) He can and will provide.
And, more than that, it’s not just a matter of His
providing monetary goods. The ultimate provision, the ultimate need is Him. It’s
been so easy for me to forget, in the conveniences of my life, that if
everything is stripped away and I was sitting in the dark eating no more than a
slice of bread, I’d have what I need. Why? Because what I truly need is Him –
his light, his joy, his compassion, his tenderness, his peace…..
I absolutely LOVE this insightful request in Proverbs
30:8-9:
Two things I ask of you;
Deny them not to me before I die:
Remove far from me falsehood and lying;
Give me
neither poverty nor riches;
Feed me
with food that is needful for me;
Lest I
be full and deny you, and say
“Who
is the Lord?”
Or lest
I be poor and steal
And profane
the name of my God.
Isn’t that profound? “Food that is needful for me.” –
that is so cool!
God is perfectly capable of meeting my/our needs. The
trick in trusting Him is that He knows what is actually needful each day. Maybe
one day we need to make our rent or we need to buy milk and it pleases him to
meet that need. (And these are needs that he hasn’t met every time, so I’m
learning to trust that He knows, not me.) Maybe one day we need to be reminded
that He alone is enough, that even scrimping by, His love is still enough. He
is still worthy of our praise and thanks. (And, I want to be careful here, because
we don’t know what it is to starve, to fear for our lives, to weep over our
children’s health. These are some thoughts from this far more secure learning
place that we are in.)
The truly exciting thing to me about all of this is the
change that it is creating in us as a family. We are learning, slowly, not to fret to the
point of being ill over how we’ll pay a certain bill or how we’ll buy new shoes
for the kids or how our marriage will not be torn apart by this level of
stress. Each time that God meets a need, or shows us that it was merely a want,
we know His grace a little better.
The lessons that you can’t learn in a comfortable place
go the deepest, I think.
This is my prayer right now in the valley that we are
traveling through:
Let me hear joy and gladness;
Let the bones that you have broken rejoice.
Hide your face from my sins,
And blot out all of my iniquities.
Create in me a clean heart, O God,
And renew a right spirit within me.
Cast me not away from your presence,
And take not your Holy Spirit from me.
Restore unto me the joy of your salvation;
And uphold me with a willing spirit.
~Psalm 51:8-12
I don’t know what you are going through. I don’t know
your needs or your wants, but I do know Someone who does and I am learning that,
if all is stripped down, He alone will fulfill my need and also yours. He may
have figuratively broken some bones in our lives, but perhaps He has done it to
create a new and clean heart that is being filled each day with a different
kind of joy and gladness. Perhaps He is preparing us for something down the
road. Or perhaps He is simply showing us His character in a different way.
Whatever the case, He can be trusted.
It’s a day to day learning curve, but I’m trusting that
He can “give us this day our daily bread” whatever it may be. I hope my
experiences of late will encourage you to rest in Him as well.
Comments