What Do I Really Need?

Anywhere you watch, hear, or read, you know about the destructive earthquake in Haiti this week. We have not had a natural disaster so close to home since the hurricanes that hit New Orleans and southern Texas. The destruction, pain, and confusion becomes real to us in interviews, pictures, and unedited news reports.

Haiti is one of the poorest countries in our hemisphere. I see pictures of the devastation, and think that, even if the buildings were put back together and people were healed and whole, I would still have so much more materially. I worry about paying a bill for heat or air conditioning - luxuries that are not even on the radar screen for many in Haiti. We have a home phone, two cell phones, four computers, and technology at our fingertips, yet we complain when it doesn't work well, or isn't available to us. Wow - how fortunate we are to have so much - or how cursed.

The more we have, the more we want. Our consumerist society has us keep up with the Jones family across the street. In some ways, though, it is counter-intuitive. Having the latest technology, a large house, 2-3 cars, and other things doesn't buy us happiness, because we are never satisfied with what we have. We WANT more, but don't NEED more. I think of pre-earthquake Haiti, and even though they were extremely poor, they were striving to have basic needs met - food, shelter, clothing, clean water - all of those things we take for granted and overlook.

As a Christian (and as a human being), I have to work against such inequality. It's too bad that it takes a major natural disaster for us to move beyond gaining our wants, to meeting the basic needs of others. But that's what Christian community is like. In Acts 2, we are reminded that the church gathered the offerings and distributed to those in need. That concept may have a Socialist tendency, but it's at times like these that those with more have the ability and responsibility to tend to the needs of those with less.

As Sarah and I prepare to go to Ghana to meet our children and complete our family, we will be flying into a similar situation. We are those who have more...and in Ghanian culture, it is customary for those with more to share with those who have less. When we pay for goods and services, the change will remain with the seller/servant. It is a means to share God's blessing with the world. And, while I might like to have that change to pay for something else, I really do have all that I need each day - food, shelter, clothing, health, job, family, and a wonderful God who blesses me beyond measure. I don't NEED anything else!