Friday, March 25, 2011

Never Enough


"To Americans, usually tragedy is wanting something very badly and not getting it."
- Henry Kissinger


This statement is convicting to me. Our collective identity has become quite consumer-focused. Need is created, and discontent stirred up, as I read this week in Calm My Anxious Heart by Linda Dillow, resulting in our longing for more and better stuff. We need a new phone...need a bigger house...need a new car....need more money....need more time. It is a familiar refrain no matter our lot, until something happens to jolt us out of consumerism into a place of desperately seeking after what matters - whatever they may happen to be - in time of crisis.

The hierarchy of needs becomes clearer in times of crisis. Tokyo, highly industrialized and representing perhaps the ultimate in technological, swanky consumer goods, has a new must-have for its residents: a bottle of water. That's it - just a cup of cool water to drink. Who'd have thought it possible?

Life happens, and it has a way of adjusting the order of what's important for us. The price tags switch overnight, it seems, and what we once dismissed as commonplace or mundane becomes highly-prized. Funny how that happens.

Just a nugget for thought as we think of all the things we need this week.

One's life does not consist in the abundance of things possessed. Luke 12:15

Lord, make us grateful people. Help us to value the immense provision you give us in each day.

4 comments:

  1. this is so true. there are always so many things we say we "need"...gratitude and contentment are wonderful things to meditate on!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thanks for this reminder, Marita. Made me think back to that first glass of "iced" water a week after Katrina. We were so grateful then, for a while, for life, family and God's blessings. But how quickly the importantance changes in our lives. Back to the basics. Faith, home and sustanance.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I have been thinking these same words this week, Marita. I constantly pray that God will help me keep my priorities in order and always know and cherish what is truly important. Joye Jones

    ReplyDelete
  4. Thank you, Joye. I didn't know you were reading! I appreciate your encouragement.

    ReplyDelete