What do I really need?

Every now and again, I have a simple question that runs through my mind. It usually goes something like this, “What do I really need?” This thought niggles at my mind every Sunday as I peruse through the various and assorted advertisements found in my paper. Page upon colorful page of stuff lies before me, and it is all so very cool. TV’s much bigger than my own. Clothes that make we wonder if I ever knew what was in style. Books. Toys. Gadgets. And my personal favorite, stretchy pants. I have always been fascinated with the idea of owning a pair of pants with comfy elastic built into the waist! Comfort. Style. And the problem of gaining weight, all taken care of in one pair of pants! Hey, a guy can dream can’t he?

Every time I open these pages and engage in a form of mental salivation, I hear five simple words, “What do I really need?” Do I really need a bigger TV, new clothes, the latest gadget? Do I really need stretchy pants? Do I really need any of it at all? On everything but the stretchy pants the answer is pretty easy. When I am painfully honest, the answer is the same, even for the stretchy pants. I don’t really need anything. I lead a blessed life, one in which I don’t want for anything. Not really. I have everything I could ever need. I certainly have more than I could ever use. To my own shame, I throw away more every week more than some people have the opportunity to consume. And yet, here I am, week after week, wanting more. Why is that?

I have done some thinking lately about this nagging desire for more and I have a theory. Here’s my theory. I have come to the point that I think that our needs extend beyond the physical and tangible .Our needs even extend beyond the emotional. I have a hunch that our needs extend to the very depths of our soul, that we need something much bigger, more foundational than the physical and emotional. It is in the presence of this unmet need that we are filled with want, an unceasing, unquenchable desire for more. Here’s what I mean. When I look at my life, I basically have everything I could ever need. I have more than I need. I have a well stocked refrigerator. I have a roof over my head. I have two cars that fit very nicely in a garage. I have a wife and two kids that love me, and I have some of the best friends anyone could ever ask for. I work in a great place with some really great people. I have it made, right? And still I open up the paper and desire kicks into high gear. I have this sense that I need more. I know that I don’t and yet I still want. Could it be that I really do need, that my desire is right just misplaced?

When I read Scripture it is pretty clear that God created us to need. He created us to need food, shelter, love, and support. God created us dependent creatures. Most of the time, we assume that this dependence extends to the world and those people who surround us. Could it be that God created us for that which was unseen as well? Could it be that God created us to be dependent on something more foundational than food, shelter, love, and support?

As I was reading Mark 6 this week, I was struck by the wonderful truth that we have a God who has created as dependent beings and yet freely supplies our needs. Jesus’ feeding of the five thousand shouts loud and clear, “Here is a God who freely supplies our needs.” As I was running the passage over in my mind I had a second realization. It went something like this. “Is not the person of Christ himself a living portrait of a God who freely meets our need, our need not just for food and shelter but for himself for in Christ has not God freely given us himself?” With that thought it hit me. God did create us as dependent creatures. We do need food, shelter, love, and support, but more foundational we need God himself. God is our greatest need. It is when we move through life without this understanding that we have the sense of this great unmet need, a need which we try to fill with that which we see. Yet, nothing we can buy, nothing that fits in our Sunday papers will ever satisfy this most fundamental need. Only God himself can satisfy. Only when we learn like Jesus that it is not bread by which we live, but by God himself will we discover that we no longer have need (Matthew 4.4; Deuteronomy 8.3).

A fellow traveler,

Blake Shipp

Spiritual Formation Pastor

What is my next step?

I encourage you to consider the following as a way of handing off faith to your family. . .

Seek Jesus, not shopping: Jesus is our greatest need. If this need is unmet in our lives, we will try to fill it with many things from the world that surrounds us. In our context, this need is often met through shopping. For the next forty days, consider forgoing all shopping for items that are not absolutely necessary for your family. This would include purchasing clothes and items for hobbies. Rather than shopping, remind your family that you are pausing for a short time to remember that your deepest need is Jesus. You might spend time each evening or at the dinner table thanking Jesus for his great provision, acknowledging that your deepest need as a family is for Jesus himself.

I encourage you to consider the following as a way of nurturing your own faith. . .

Discover Jesus is our deepest need: God created us as dependent creatures. We have basic needs, which if unmet, will lead to our demise. However, our greatest need is not such things as food and shelter. Our greatest need is God himself. Apart from God, our lives will wither and perish. This week, consider opening your life to the reality that God is your greatest need by engaging in a one day fast. To fast simply means to abstain from food, drink, or some other item of your choosing. In abstaining, we remind ourselves that we need something more foundational than food or drink. We remind ourselves that we need God. Fasting is not difficult for short periods and requires little preparation. Consider beginning your fast at sunset of a day, having consumed a balanced meal for supper. Drink plenty of fluids throughout the rest of the evening and the next day. As hunger pains come, offer the following prayer. “Jesus, you are my deepest need.” At sunset of the following day, break your fast with a small, balanced meal, offering thanks to God for sustaining you.