Wants vs. Needs
Perspective. Along the journey of life, we certainly have all sorts of needs…physical needs like good health, food and water and shelter…oh, and lets NOT forget about clothing. Humans also have emotional needs such as love, joy, acceptance, respect…and the list goes on. Then, for so many of us a paramount need is an active spiritual life…a connection with God. To me, that is my highest priority. Chocolate ice cream runs a close second! (God knows that I’m kidding.) I saw the attached graphic from Lessons Learned in Life and it just really hit home. We THINK there are things that we really need. Sometimes, we even get irate over it when we don’t get what we THINK we need. Like I think I need a Kindle Fire. I could really use one. But, do I really NEED it? No, but I sure as heck do WANT one. It makes me recall my first few days after my diagnosis with breast cancer. Over the years, I had lost both parents, been divorced, and had experienced a few other significant adversities that I will not name because they involve the privacy of other people. So, God and I made it through each of those very painful times, but my thoughts about the breast cancer diagnosis ran along the lines of, “What am I to do with THIS?” Lots of pondering, contemplating. LOTS!!! For me, to be able to get through the surgeries, chemotherapy, and the side effects of the chemotherapy I had to strip myself down to answering the questions, “What is my bottom line?” “What is it that I just absolutely have to have…what is that greatest need?” The answers were that I HAD to HAVE God and that my greatest NEED was to live in Eternity with my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. That was and is my greatest need. Of course, my pondering continued and I had and still do have many other needs. My relationship with my daughters and grandchildren, my brother, all my family and those great blessings of amazing friends who are, indeed, chosen family. I need a church family that loves me and supports me as I do them. I need opportunities to serve my Lord, my community and others through Christ. They are all keenly important needs to me. At any given time, we find ourselves on the giving/serving end or on the needing end. I’ve been on both. You most likely have, too. I know so many people right now that are sick, suffering, have extreme grief, whose hearts are breaking and ones who are dying. We wish WE could do something to help lighten the load. Sometimes there is and other times we might feel useless. There is something I have observed in our fast-paced technological advancements. On Facebook, I see so many people that request prayer from time to time. Its public, to a certain extent, and I find it interesting that I have FB “friends” in their late 80s, or my age, raising young children, in college who all are on “their” journeys and have needs and wants…and express them, thankfully. What an opportunity of widening the circle of prayer! If you’ve ever found yourself in one of the true need categories, many of you know just how valuable and coveted each prayer that is lifted up for you is! So no need for us to feel useless, I believe prayer is the Number 1 way we can help. I have been amazed by people in the direst of circumstances and in places we don’t want to...
Read MoreThe Value of Family and Love
My brother and I were born to two wonderful, loving, fun and supportive parents. We were the only children and we have always been close, which is a blessing in both our lives. We were raised in the church and had a good family life. Our parents instilled in us appreciation and respect for all people. They taught us about kindness and compassion. My brother has always been a genuine, caring man and NEVER meets a stranger. Our father passed away from a sudden heart attack when he was 61 years old. Heart disease was heavy in his family background and he did well making it to age 61. Our grandfather and two of our uncles all died from sudden heart attacks in their early 40s. Our mother passed away from a stroke when she was 78. We miss them both so much. But we’re glad we have each other and our own families. My brother was so supportive of me throughout my breast cancer journey. He was there for all my surgeries, took me to most of my chemotherapy appointments and called and visited me frequently. Since I was divorced and my two grown daughters lived out of state, I lived alone. But, I NEVER FELT ALONE…EVER! By directing our local United Way since 1984, I had a public life where I worked with many, many amazing volunteers, staff and agency representatives. Working on community problems and issues draws you close together and truly caring for one another naturally evolves. I’ve always felt that I was surrounded by many “chosen” family. During the months of surgeries and chemo treatment, my church family, and my natural & chosen families all reached out to me and walked every step of the path right with me. I was and still am so very blessed. I share this in my blog so that I can explain something so strong and powerful that God’s Holy Spirit put on my heart during these months and now years. This lesson was simple but so powerful to me that it became very important in my thoughts, prayers and actions. I got hundreds of phone calls and cards and letters from people telling me they were praying for me. Many of them shared that their church or Sunday School class was praying for me regularly…sometimes, people I didn’t even know. Every time I heard or read this, I felt bathed in love and encouragement…by God and the people. Then, it became overwhelming. My surgeon even said to me one day, “You must know everyone in Iredell County because I can’t go anywhere without having people ask about you.” We laughed about that. I said it’s just because this is my hometown. But the truth is this…I had so much love and caring. It overwhelmed me in a way that I realized I needed to focus on people that were going through the same or similar thing as I was and some of them had no one to support them like I did. It became quite important to me that I reach out to everyone with whom I came in contact and see them as a person I needed to share God’s love with. Even having worked my adult life in a charitable problem-solving career, this new awareness was mind-blowing for me. I was really, really sick during the chemo months and this “gift of awareness” that God gave me meant so much to me. I saw it as another reason to fight like crazy to recover and get to work. So I began to share this message...
Read MoreWhat's Your Passion?
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