Which Is It: Need or Want?

Perhaps you’ve heard of the frog in the pot analogy:  drop a frog in a pot of boiling water and he’ll do his best to hop right out.  But, put him in cold water and very gradually heat it to boiling and he won’t even notice.  Over the years we have been de-sensitized to many things which are beyond the scope of one short blog.  So, today let’s focus on needs versus wants.  What do we really NEED?  You hear it at times being answered, “food, clothing and shelter.”

Some of our ancestors came here from other countries for a better life.  They homesteaded and worked the land, digging their own wells, building their own homes and barns.  Their “privies” were outside which was not pleasant in the dead of winter.  They worked from sun-up to sundown just to provide the bare essentials.

Today we have instant communication, instant news feeds, instant meals, same-day deliveries which we can request from our homes.  We no longer cook on a wood stove or pump the water we need or go out into inclement weather to use the bathroom.

This past winter Texas suffered one of its worst winters in history.  Dallas reported below zero temperatures.  Much of the city shut down as they went through rolling blackouts.  My son and his family were not even fortunate enough to have a rolling blackout; their power was off an entire week.  Since he felt the need to drain the water at his house, they had neither heat nor water that whole time.  They kept the fireplace going and ate whatever was in the pantry.  This was the 2021 version of roughing it – not something any of us would put at the top of our lists to experience.  But, living “bare bones” certainly shows what one is capable of and it also points out how much we have that we no longer even notice.

Like the frog in the pot, we have become a society where our wants have gradually moved over into our needs column.  There seems to be an abundance of things we suddenly feel we absolutely must have or we simply cannot endure.  Obviously, advertisements feed this insatiable appetite.  But, even though I still have to use a key to get into my car and to drive it, even though I don’t have a back-up camera, do I really NEED a new car?  Even though your carpet is 8 years old, is it life and death if you don’t replace it right away? What if a new cell phone comes out?  Do you need all its features for work, or are they just the latest adult version of a toy?

Don’t get me wrong:  if you work hard and want to pamper yourself occasionally, go ahead.  But, it may not hurt all of us to take a good look at which of our wants should be eliminated from the needs column.  Let’s separate fact from fiction…

“…for your Father knows what you need…”    (Matthew 6:8)