Perspective: Higher Needs

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Higher Needs

Don't chase after what you will eat and what you will drink.  Stop worrying.  All the nations of the world long for these things.  Your Father knows that you need them.  Instead, desire his kingdom and these things will be given to you as well.

Luke 12:29-31 (CEB)

All of You is more than enough for all of me

For every thirst and every need

You satisfy me with Your love

And all I have in You is more than enough

From "Enough" by Chris Tomlin

In the Gospel of Luke, we read that, one day, while Jesus is teaching a crowd, a man approaches Him and asks Him to tell his brother to share his inheritance with him.¹  Jesus, who has no interest in being drawn into this dispute, says to the crowd, "Watch out!  Guard yourself against all kinds of greed.  After all, one's life isn't determined by one's possessions, even when someone is very wealthy."

Jesus goes on to tell a parable as a warning to people who are rich in things and poor toward God.  In this parable, a farmer has an abundant harvest and ends up with a lot more grain than he needs.  Instead of sharing his abundance with others, he decides to build bigger barns to store his grain and then to take it easy for a while.  As he gets ready to relax and enjoy his life, having built his new barns stored up enough grain for the next few years, he hears from God, "Fool, tonight you will die.  Now who will get the things you have prepared for yourself?"

In the words of Alanis Morissette, "Isn't it ironic, don't you think?"²

Jesus then encourages the crowd to not worry about their basic needs saying, "Don't worry about your life, what you will eat, or about your body, what you will wear.  There is more to life than food and more to the body than clothing."  He encourages the crowd to trust in the provision of God, who feeds the birds and clothes the grass with flowers.  He then says, "Don't chase after what you will eat and what you will drink.  Stop worrying...  Your Father knows that you need them.  Instead, desire his kingdom and these things will be given to you as well."

For me, Jesus' teachings about greed and worry call to mind psychologist Abraham Maslow's hierarchy of human needs.  Maslow's hierarchy is typically illustrated as a pyramid on which our basest, most urgent physiological needs are placed at the bottom and on which our higher, more complex needs are placed at the top.  Maslow argued that our more basic needs must be met before we can even consider our higher needs.³

Jesus teaches us to not worry about things like food and clothing but to instead trust in God's provision.  Both food and clothing are among our physiological needs, which make up the basest category on Maslow's hierarchy.  Jesus teaches us to be on guard against greed and warns us not to hoard what God has provided us.  I suspect that often, beneath a person's temptation to hoard, there is a desire for security.  Security is classified as a "safety need," which is the second basest category of needs on Maslow's hierarchy.⁴

Regarding our physiological needs, Jesus says that "there is more to life than food and more to the body than clothing."  Regarding our safety needs, He says that "one's life isn't determined by one's possessions."  I wonder if maybe Jesus is encouraging us to reach higher.  More than once in His teachings on greed and worry, He tells us that there is more to life than our baser needs.  In another Gospel, He says, "I came that [people] may have life, and have it abundantly."⁵

I wonder if maybe one reason Jesus encourages us not to worry about our basest needs and warns us not to be greedy in our search for security is that He wants us to recognize that we have other needs.  Perhaps things like greed and worry keep us preoccupied with our baser needs and prevent us from pursuing our higher needs.  The higher categories of needs on Maslow's hierarchy are needs related to love and belonging, esteem, and self-actualization.⁶  Perhaps Jesus wants us to realize our need for things like love, community, self-worth, and purpose, and maybe He even invites us to come to Him and have those needs met.

Christ calls us into community with each other and teaches us to love one another.  In Christ, we see that we are all beloved children of God.  We are individually gifted by the Holy Spirit so that we may to work together as the Body of Christ to reflect God's love to the world.  We are blessed by God to be a blessing to the people around us.  When we share our excess with those in need, we become the hands and feet with which God meets their needs.

God loves us and cares about our needs.  May you, dear reader, trust in God to provide not only what you need to survive but everything you need to be what God created you to be.


Notes:

1. Much of this perspective is based on Luke 12:13-34.  Quotations are taken from the Common English Bible.
2. From the song "Ironic" by Alanis Morissette
3. Wikipedia: "Maslow's hierarchy of needs"
4. ibid
5. John 10:10 (NRSV)
6. Wikipedia: "Maslow's hierarchy of needs"

The diagram of Maslow's hierarchy of needs was created by Wikimedia user Chiquo and is used under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license.  The creator is in no way affiliated with this blog.