Wants and Needs

 

“Mom, you said we could eat now!”  Elliot said as I walked in the door of our home.  I didn’t even have time to say, ‘Honey, I’m home!’

“I said,” Elaine said, with a steel edge to her voice, “that we could eat after Dad got home.  I didn’t say the second he walked in the door.”

“But Mom,” Elliot said with a mournful voice.  “I’m famished.”

I would not be surprised if my younger son appears soon in advertisements for organizations that are attempting deliver food aid to the needier parts of the globe.  He may not look someone who is dying of hunger, but he is knocking on starvations door on a regular basis.

Elliot could teach the malnourished people in the Horn of Africa a thing or two about the meaning of starvation.  They think they are starving after months of little food, but he can achieve the same death-like state in the short time from his afternoon snack till supper time.

Fortunately, Elliot did survive the short time from my arrival at home and when a very delectable supper placed on the table.

Food is a human need.  We are unable to survive for any length of time without it.  At the same time, most of us don’t need to eat as often as we do eat, nor do we need the quantity of food that we store away at each meal.

It is almost as though most of us are worried that food might be scarce after the next election.

The Apostle Paul wrote to the Philippians “And my God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 4:19)

Paul wrote this letter from prison and certainly it didn’t seem like a place to be crowing about how God had provided for his every need.  If anything he found himself in the middle of a time of suffering that might easily end in his execution.

It seems like Paul had learned better than most of us that his wants and his needs were two separate things.  So many of the things that we value are not needs and in point of fact, many humans around the world live without them.  Perhaps their lives are not as comfortable as the lives of most Americans, but they know better than we do that air conditioning, smart phones, and internet access are not required for life to continue.

Our heavenly Father is faithful and he does minister to our every need.  Sometimes when the food isn’t being set before us at the exact instant we crave it, we need to take a deep breath and realize that what we need most is not food, but a bit of good, old-fashioned patience.