I was looking at an article ‘Overcoming Anxiety’ and being anxious seems to be almost par for the course for our lives these days. There’s a sense of anxiety in even safety these days, packed onto everything else that we can be anxious about. But going through this article, I found an interesting statistic. It had to do with ‘needs’ versus ‘wants’. The research by Miller is more pertinent to the US, but I thought that I could see how relevant it was for us here.
He says that at the beginning of this century, the average American had 72 wants and considered 18 of them important, that is, to be needs. By the end of the century, the average American had 496 wants and considered 96 of them as genuine necessities for happiness. That’s huge! We need to give some leeway for the way things have changed economically, new inventions coming in, etc. But it is still huge that early on, in the beginning of the century, there were just 18 things that were considered to be needs and 54 were wants. And at the end of the century, 96 were needs and 400 were wants.
Thinking about that, I felt that there needed to be a distinction between needs and wants, or else we can get into trouble. Look at advertising today. The push seems to be to transfer things from the wants column to the needs column. The moment that happens then it seems soothing for our conscience that we are indulging in buying something that we need; not a luxury. I thought how important it is to be able to delineate and say, “These are needs and these are wants.
Manish Chauhan, writing an article on ‘Difference between Needs and Wants’ in Financial Planning, underscores the same thought. He says, “A need is something which is essential for you, irrespective of your financial condition. These are things that you must have, for e.g., house expenses, children’s education, savings for retirement or medical expenses, educational expenses (school and college fees) and maybe a vacation, within limits. But what are the things that you wish to have? A car is a want compared to your child’s education fees. That’s the key; to make sure that the wants are not at the expense of what you need.”
I thought that was wise counsel for us. Sometimes we can think that these are the things that we want and some of the basic needs begin to get treated as orphans, without any care. This might be a good thing for each one of us on this call to think about, as we work hard and try and meet all our requirements; that we still need to be able to say “These are the needs that I have and these are my wants. When I have the money and I’ve met the needs, then it’s ok to indulge in the wants as well. After all, that’s something that we work hard for – to be able to have that little extra to be able to satisfy some of the things that we would like beyond our needs. But it can never be at the expense of our needs.
I remember many years ago thinking about needs and wants; we were students at that time and had just moved into a new locality. This was a small town in the US and had no public transport. Even to get to the store, we had to walk 1-2 miles. If you didn’t have transport, you were really stuck; imagine carrying bags of groceries back home.
In all of this I was reminded that we need to realize that the Almighty God is also interested in providing for our needs. Sometimes in our frenzied pace, we forget that we’re not the only ones that have to be the providers. He too can input into us. But our busy pace can shut Him out. I remember how wonderfully He took care of this problem.
My wife and I looked at each other and said, “This is not going to work. We can’t be walking across town with these groceries; it’s just too difficult.” I remember praying and telling God that He had promised to take care of needs and He needed to take care of this. That night, my parents called and said that there was a good refurbished car available for only $700 and would we be interested in buying it. We didn’t have that kind of money, being students and so said no, we couldn’t afford it. They offered to put 50% down. Still we would have to borrow the rest and we had not borrowed any money up until then and didn’t want to start. So we said no, it’s ok. We wondered if we had made the right decision but felt a certain peace that that’s where we needed to be.
You won’t believe this but the next day I got a call from the dean of my college who asked me if I had a car and would I be interested in one. I asked him how much it would cost and he said ‘nothing’. He explained that there was a professor who had just bought a new car and wanted to give his old car away to an international student. He said that I should give him a call and go and see him. So I made the call and he told me to come over. I went and met him and he told me to take a test drive – it was great. I then asked him, “How much do you want for the car?” He replied, “Do you have a dollar?” I gave him a dollar and he handed me the keys. I drove back in that car and thought – Thank you God. We didn’t have the means but it was a need and you took care of that need.
That came back to me as I was thinking about wants and needs and the push that we have to move the wants into the needs category bombarding us on television. I realized that when needs are met, there’s so much of satisfaction because that’s what we almost live for – to go out and work and provide for our family, etc. There’s satisfaction that comes. To move the wants into that direction and then being unable to meet those wants as they are camouflaged as needs, it takes the joy out of our life. It’s so important to delineate the two; to constantly make sure that the needs are being provided and to lean on God for it; but to also keep the wants in a separate column. When you have the means, go ahead and indulge maybe in some of the wants, but never at the expense of the needs.
2 verses from the Bible that constantly encourage me:-
• Philippians 4:19 “My God will supply all your needs according to His glorious riches in Christ Jesus”
• 2 Corinthians 9:8 “And God will generously provide all you need and you will always have everything you need and plenty left over to share even with others.”
So, just a couple of thoughts:-
1. Delineate today between your needs and your wants; keep them separate so that you can always see them as 2 columns.
2. If you haven’t made space for God in that needs column, trust Him to provide for those needs as well.
God Bless You All.
He says that at the beginning of this century, the average American had 72 wants and considered 18 of them important, that is, to be needs. By the end of the century, the average American had 496 wants and considered 96 of them as genuine necessities for happiness. That’s huge! We need to give some leeway for the way things have changed economically, new inventions coming in, etc. But it is still huge that early on, in the beginning of the century, there were just 18 things that were considered to be needs and 54 were wants. And at the end of the century, 96 were needs and 400 were wants.
Thinking about that, I felt that there needed to be a distinction between needs and wants, or else we can get into trouble. Look at advertising today. The push seems to be to transfer things from the wants column to the needs column. The moment that happens then it seems soothing for our conscience that we are indulging in buying something that we need; not a luxury. I thought how important it is to be able to delineate and say, “These are needs and these are wants.
Manish Chauhan, writing an article on ‘Difference between Needs and Wants’ in Financial Planning, underscores the same thought. He says, “A need is something which is essential for you, irrespective of your financial condition. These are things that you must have, for e.g., house expenses, children’s education, savings for retirement or medical expenses, educational expenses (school and college fees) and maybe a vacation, within limits. But what are the things that you wish to have? A car is a want compared to your child’s education fees. That’s the key; to make sure that the wants are not at the expense of what you need.”
I thought that was wise counsel for us. Sometimes we can think that these are the things that we want and some of the basic needs begin to get treated as orphans, without any care. This might be a good thing for each one of us on this call to think about, as we work hard and try and meet all our requirements; that we still need to be able to say “These are the needs that I have and these are my wants. When I have the money and I’ve met the needs, then it’s ok to indulge in the wants as well. After all, that’s something that we work hard for – to be able to have that little extra to be able to satisfy some of the things that we would like beyond our needs. But it can never be at the expense of our needs.
I remember many years ago thinking about needs and wants; we were students at that time and had just moved into a new locality. This was a small town in the US and had no public transport. Even to get to the store, we had to walk 1-2 miles. If you didn’t have transport, you were really stuck; imagine carrying bags of groceries back home.
In all of this I was reminded that we need to realize that the Almighty God is also interested in providing for our needs. Sometimes in our frenzied pace, we forget that we’re not the only ones that have to be the providers. He too can input into us. But our busy pace can shut Him out. I remember how wonderfully He took care of this problem.
My wife and I looked at each other and said, “This is not going to work. We can’t be walking across town with these groceries; it’s just too difficult.” I remember praying and telling God that He had promised to take care of needs and He needed to take care of this. That night, my parents called and said that there was a good refurbished car available for only $700 and would we be interested in buying it. We didn’t have that kind of money, being students and so said no, we couldn’t afford it. They offered to put 50% down. Still we would have to borrow the rest and we had not borrowed any money up until then and didn’t want to start. So we said no, it’s ok. We wondered if we had made the right decision but felt a certain peace that that’s where we needed to be.
You won’t believe this but the next day I got a call from the dean of my college who asked me if I had a car and would I be interested in one. I asked him how much it would cost and he said ‘nothing’. He explained that there was a professor who had just bought a new car and wanted to give his old car away to an international student. He said that I should give him a call and go and see him. So I made the call and he told me to come over. I went and met him and he told me to take a test drive – it was great. I then asked him, “How much do you want for the car?” He replied, “Do you have a dollar?” I gave him a dollar and he handed me the keys. I drove back in that car and thought – Thank you God. We didn’t have the means but it was a need and you took care of that need.
That came back to me as I was thinking about wants and needs and the push that we have to move the wants into the needs category bombarding us on television. I realized that when needs are met, there’s so much of satisfaction because that’s what we almost live for – to go out and work and provide for our family, etc. There’s satisfaction that comes. To move the wants into that direction and then being unable to meet those wants as they are camouflaged as needs, it takes the joy out of our life. It’s so important to delineate the two; to constantly make sure that the needs are being provided and to lean on God for it; but to also keep the wants in a separate column. When you have the means, go ahead and indulge maybe in some of the wants, but never at the expense of the needs.
2 verses from the Bible that constantly encourage me:-
• Philippians 4:19 “My God will supply all your needs according to His glorious riches in Christ Jesus”
• 2 Corinthians 9:8 “And God will generously provide all you need and you will always have everything you need and plenty left over to share even with others.”
So, just a couple of thoughts:-
1. Delineate today between your needs and your wants; keep them separate so that you can always see them as 2 columns.
2. If you haven’t made space for God in that needs column, trust Him to provide for those needs as well.
God Bless You All.
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