Want vs Need... Im thankful for what God has provided

1.1.2014

I'm truly thankful for all that we have and for all the people in my life. Happy New Year friends! Take time to love your family, friends, and neighbors (and your enemies).  

I was struck by the following passage in the book Revolution in World Missions so I decided it was worth sharing. It is a good reminder as we enjoy a prosperous new year that not everyone in this world has as much.  At the same time, many also recognize they do not need so much to be happy.  

I pray we all find the right balance in our lives.  

  Economist Robert Heilbroner describes the luxuries a typical American family would have to surrender if they lived among the one billion hungry people in the Third World:
We begin by invading the house of our imaginary American family to strip it of its furniture. Everything goes: beds, chairs, tables, television sets, lamps. We will leave the family with a few old blankets, a kitchen table, a wooden chair. Along with the bureaus go the clothes. Each member of the family may keep in his ‘wardrobe’ his oldest suit or dress, a shirt or blouse. We will permit a pair of shoes for the head of the family, but none for the wife or children.
  We move to the kitchen. The appliances have already been taken out, so we turn to the cupboards ... the box of matches may stay, a small bag of flour, some sugar and salt. A few moldy potatoes, already in the garbage can, must be rescued, for they will provide much of tonight’s meal. We will leave a handful of onions and a dish of dried beans. All the rest we take away: the meat, the fresh vegetables, the canned goods, the crackers, the candy.
  Now we have stripped the house: the bathroom has been dismantled, the running water shut off, the electric wires taken out. Next we take away the house. The family can move to the tool shed. Communications must go next. No more newspapers, magazines, books—not that they are missed, since we must take away our family’s literacy as well. Instead, in our shantytown we will allow one radio.
  Now government services must go next. No more postmen, no more firemen. There is a school, but it is three miles away and consists of two classrooms. There are, of course, no hospitals or doctors nearby. The nearest clinic is ten miles away and is tended by a midwife. It can be reached by bicycle, provided the family has a bicycle, which is unlikely.
  Finally, money. We will allow our family a cash hoard of five dollars. This will prevent our breadwinner from experiencing the tragedy of a peasant who went blind because he could not raise the $3.94 which he mistakenly thought he needed to receive admission to a hospital where he could have been cured.

Sunrise photo taken during my visit in December 2013.  Even the starkness of Chad can be beautiful!

Love,

Mason, Kim, Grace (Maddie), & Emmie McDowell

            Psalm 139:9-10   

                  9 If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, ¹⁰ even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast.