Need and want

“The art of our necessities is strange
That can make vile things precious.”
― William Shakespeare

“What people need and what they want may be very different.”
Elbert Hubbard

(a hungry squirrel, Colonial Cemetery, Savannah, Ga / Julie Cook / 2016)

I want you to want me
I need you to need me
I’d love you to love me
I’m begging you to beg me
I want you to want me
I need you to need me
I’d love you to love me
Lyrics by Cheap Trick

Need verses want
Want verses need

Once upon a time mankind knew that what was needed
was far more pressing than what was wanted…

However…as time passed and lines blurred, the hype was on…
Needs took a back seat to wants…

But there always seemed as if something was there…
something we just couldn’t put our finger on…
There was a gnawing, a burning, a hunger of sorts…
but yet it wasn’t necessarily for food…

And it only grew, and kept growing to an almost insatiable level.

We weren’t hungry because we had all the tasty and trendy food we could want.
We weren’t cold because we had all the coats, gear and warmth we could want.
We weren’t exposed to the elements because we had all the nicest shelters we could want.
We weren’t sick because we had all the best medicines we could want.

We were simply without…
Without something we couldn’t understand.

And so we felt…
empty…
lacking…
pained…
disjointed…
incomplete…

We had everything we thought we needed and everything we thought we wanted…
But…
But we were wrong….

“Come, all you who are thirsty,
come to the waters;
and you who have no money,
come, buy and eat!
Come, buy wine and milk
without money and without cost.
Why spend money on what is not bread,
and your labor on what does not satisfy?
Listen, listen to me, and eat what is good,
and you will delight in the richest of fare.
Give ear and come to me;
listen, that you may live.
I will make an everlasting covenant with you,
my faithful love promised to David.
See, I have made him a witness to the peoples,
a ruler and commander of the peoples.
Surely you will summon nations you know not,
and nations you do not know will come running to you,
because of the Lord your God,
the Holy One of Israel,
for he has endowed you with splendor.”
Seek the Lord while he may be found;
call on him while he is near.
Let the wicked forsake their ways
and the unrighteous their thoughts.
Let them turn to the Lord, and he will have mercy on them,
and to our God, for he will freely pardon.
“For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
neither are your ways my ways,”
declares the Lord.
“As the heavens are higher than the earth,
so are my ways higher than your ways
and my thoughts than your thoughts.
As the rain and the snow
come down from heaven,
and do not return to it
without watering the earth
and making it bud and flourish,
so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater,
so is my word that goes out from my mouth:
It will not return to me empty,
but will accomplish what I desire
and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.
You will go out in joy
and be led forth in peace;
the mountains and hills
will burst into song before you,
and all the trees of the field
will clap their hands.
Instead of the thornbush will grow the juniper,
and instead of briers the myrtle will grow.
This will be for the Lord’s renown,
for an everlasting sign,
that will endure forever.”
Psalm 55

You are both God of tempest storm and peaceful calm

My heart is in anguish within me,
And the terrors of death have fallen upon me.
Fear and trembling come upon me,
And horror has overwhelmed me.
I said, “Oh, that I had wings like a dove!
I would fly away and be at rest.
“Behold, I would wander far away,
I would lodge in the wilderness. Selah.
“I would hasten to my place of refuge
From the stormy wind and tempest.”
(Psalm 55 5-8)

(the native azalea survived Winter’s fury / Julie Cook / 2014)

For you are the God of both tempest storm and peaceful calm.
You see us and know of the terror caused by a blackened sky
We neither sleep nor rest as the winds howl all around us
Our nights are filled with anguish and dread, for in the darkness hides an unforgiving twisting wind.
The rains cause the creeks and rivers to flow from their banks, taking away what is ours
The hail assaults our dwelling place and causes damage to all things exposed

When we emerge from the shelter of the pit,
Our eyes stare in disbelief at the destruction.
Lives now scattered like fallen leaves.
No identifying markers reamin.
We are helpless to stop the storm
It chooses neither rich nor poor, young nor old.
It discriminates not as it sets a random course.

Our eyes are swollen with dried up tears
As our tongues stick to a dry and tasteless mouth
Missing now are pets, friends, neighbors, schools, homes, cars, businesses.
Nothing remains
Neither grass nor leaf, flower nor bird.

And yet You hear our cries.
You know of our broken lives.
You are not absent in the wind
You know of each lightening strike as you count each and every drop of rain.
We cry out to You and You are there.

As skies darken for a third straight day, draw close to us as we look up in fear
Bring peace to the raging storm
Quiet the fierce winds
Spare us oh God, for you are merciful and You alone know of our distress.

And should the storms descend upon our lives, scattering all that we cherish,
Be with us as we pick up the debris of our lives.
Help us to rebuild and make new what was taken.
Grant us strength in the face of our weakness.
We need not fear for it is only in You that we have already overcome Death.