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Wants, Needs, and Lies


Whoever pursues righteousness and love finds life, prosperity and honor. (Proverbs 21:21)
          A book I read recently (Creating Character Arcs, by K. M. Weiland) says that in order to create interesting characters, a writer should identify the lie that the character believes, the thing the character wants, and the thing that the character actually needs. The purpose of the story is to show the character reject the lie he/she believes and turn from the thing he/she wants in order to achieve or attain the thing he/she needs (often, that needed thing is the truth.) 
          That’s the situation described in today’s passage. The lie is that life, prosperity, and honor are what will make us happy. We buy into this lie so strongly that we think ourselves compassionate if we demand that everyone is provided with a certain quality of life, we shame those who shame anyone (unless we agree,) and we insist that our government provide a “safety net” for those who aren’t prosperous. Who cares about righteousness? Or, who cares about righteousness if it can’t be used to secure life, prosperity, and honor?
          But today’s Scripture tells us that those who pursue what is needed: righteousness, will find the things we want. Sometimes, God does work that way. There are other times when God shows us that by pursuing righteousness, we discover what real life, real prosperity, and real honor are. There are also times when God shows us that life, prosperity, and honor aren’t what we need. They aren’t even what we really want, and in pursuing righteousness, we can walk away from those other things like Lot, and not Lot’s wife.
          Lord, teach us to want what we need. Teach us to recognize the difference between a want and a need.

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