Needs & Wants…

Growing up, I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard the whole lecture about “needs” and “wants”….(And that’s not coming from just you, Mom!)

And it always came at the worst possible times too. Like when you’ve just gotten the JC Penny Christmas catalog and you’re looking through all the cool toys and are trying to make your sell to your parents. You’ve got your elevator speech prepared….you’re on cloud nine as you imagine how much better your life would be with your new Batman tent. You NEED it….

And then comes the devastating blow in the form of the nonchalant “Do you NEED the new Batman tent, or do you just WANT it?”

Now for the record, I (or my brothers and I) ended up whining and begging and crying our way into the new Batman tent because our elevator speech must have been that good (or because our parents knew how to give fantastic Christmas gifts!). The moral of the story, however, isn’t the fact that I was good at whining and begging and crying my way into things, but that this whole heavily-engrained “Needs versus Wants” perspective-thing has finally paid off. (Well done, Dad & Mom!)

Except it’s taken on a slightly revised and new light in my life: Does this really matter or not?
Am I spending my time, using my talents, giving of my money….in ways and on things that really matter? Or is it still all about me?

And fighting the norm is no easy thing. Pastor Chris (and my church)  always refers to the fact that we live in an “Ipod, YOUtube, MYspace” world where everything revolves around the self. And so it becomes quite clear quite quickly why so many people do so many stupid, selfish, meaningless things. It’s what our culture preaches. Relentlessly.

I won’t sit here, either, and say I’m above it. Because I’m not. By nature, I’m a selfish person; it’s a daily struggle to overcome the temptations of the self, but Christ-followed living means, in part, selfless-living and is something we should nonetheless be striving for.

As I am on this journey of rediscovering what Christ desires for me and, really, for all of us, it always keeps coming back to RELATIONSHIPS.

“Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbors as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”

Below is little slideshow that has HUGE MEANING. This past December, five Ace Hoopers had the opportunity to spend part of the Christmas season with the most beautiful kids in the world!
And they really matter!

Thank you to all of you who have been praying and supporting and investing in Ace Hoops. You’re investing in things that really matter! Keep pressing on.