Needs, Wants, Desires

For the last 5+ months I have been working in an auto dealership as Financial/Business Manager. It has been a challenging, stretching, educational and enjoyable time as I've been learning a whole new culture, vocabulary and system. Plus I've had the pleasure of working with some friendly people.

The owner/manager, my boss, often says that people have "needs, wants and desires". Because of this, they will be around to purchase new or at least different vehicles. Some need a different car or truck because their present vehicle has died, been wrecked, or is otherwise unserviceable. And they still need to get from point A to point B.

Others want a different vehicle because they've had the current one too long, it's too big and uses too much gas, or for whatever reason they have found to justify/rationalize this purchase.

Finally, some people just desire a new/different car or truck for no reason at all. But they are able and willing to make a purchase at this point.

These three groups of people make the auto business possible because here in rural Iowa, there is no public transportation available, and people still wish to travel outside their homes. No one is ready to accept a future of staying at home.

All this set me thinking about the present economic crisis in which we find ourselves embroiled. Perhaps one of the good things that is going to come of it is that people will once again learn to distinguish between their needs and their wants/desires. With the limited resources facing us, personally and as a people, perhaps we will discover that our needs are really very few. Not much is required to meet the real needs of our life.

It seems to me that many people have backed themselves into a financial corner because they have confused their wants with their needs. By becoming slaves to their own wants and desires, they have put themselves on an endless treadmill with no end in sight.

Our wants and desires stretch beyond the horizon, thereby making us restless and unhappy. Modern advertising paints a continually changing picture of unlimited wants and desires. Confusing our wants/desires with our needs only stirs up dissatisfaction and discontent with our present situation since it is impossible to satisfy them all.

This is not to say that we should not have dreams or goals. Nor is it to say that we should be satisfied with being less than our best. Obviously, God calls us to be all that we have been created to be, to use our gifts and talents for others, for the good of the world. But part of that process is to be able to distinguish between our own needs and our wants or desires.

If we can learn to focus on meeting our needs, and being satisfied when that has happened, wouldn't we be much more content? Wouldn't it be great to be free of the pressure of the unlimited wants/desires created by modern advertising? Wouldn't we be more ready to notice the needs of others and work to help them?

Where are you on the needs/wants/desires spectrum? How can you learn to distinguish between them and grow in freedom?