Tough times, basic needs
We are all in a global economic crisis.
Everywhere you look, you see headlines, banners and tag words which would keep on telling you this.
I find life will get difficult, not just for the poor but also the rich. There was a news which reported how several tycoons lost billions because of the crisis. One of them had his wealth reduced to one billion, down from nine billion dollars.
Wow - that's a lot of money to lose. To begin with, he had a lot of money. Nine billion! How many people could that feed? I am amazed to think how one can amass so much wealth. How did he do it?
Most people I know had to work so hard every day to earn a few thousands. And some people I read about in the newspapers worked even harder just to earn a few hundreds a month.
I guess perhaps the value of money is decreasing? What is little to us now used to be a lot twenty years ago. And all because of the increase in the cost of everything. The cost of living had certainly gone up tremendously.
In last sunday's sermon, I heard a message about the value of man. Each of us is worth more than a sparrow, which did not go hungry because god had made it possible for it to find food. Hence we should trust that god would look into our needs even more since we are so precious in his sight. But then why is it we find that we have to continue to work so hard just to earn a living?
I started counting on how much I would really NEED. Yes, the key word is NEED, not want. I had to consider my needs - which basically, if I remember what Maslow said, include the physical and physiological. A shelter, clothing, food - these would be the true basic needs. Now these wouldn't cost a lot. However, tied with these would the "quality" we would be reckoning with. Like shelter - how big a house would one need? Clothing - what sort? Food - again we would be facing many choices to think about.
So, what's it like to go back to the very basic needs. If all of us can be contented to settle for the essential amount and "quality", then perhaps we could see how "little" money we need to earn.
Easier said than executed.
In this country where I live in, it's not easy for one to settle for just the essentials. Life is "good" here - so far...."good" government might also cause us to be complacent about facing tough times ahead. Of course this year might just get real tough for everyone. As a believer, whether or not we are already affected by the financial crisis, it would be good to begin serious reflections on our basic needs and to learn or train ourselves to live with just that. And to successfully do this, we need to return to the state we were in when we first accepted him - i.e. to rekindle the faith we had in him then and to start reaffirming his status in our lives again....
