Okay, I have a guilty confession. I love to watch HGTV’s Househunters. I live vicariously through people who are at an exciting and critical juncture in life, and I love to offer advice without argument.
The show also gives me insight into what goes through the head of the average Joe in our society. And sometimes that makes me a little crazy, especially when it comes to hearing the wish lists of potential home buyers.
Maybe some of you are a little lost right now because you haven’t been bitten by the Househunters bug. Let me break it down for you. In each show, a wanna-be homeowner somewhere in the country (or in the international version, the world) is paired with a real estate agent who helps him find a home meeting his budget and other criteria.
What’s maddening is all the first-time homebuyers – generally 20-somethings – whose “needs” exceed their budget. They must have their dream homes right off the bat. In looking at outdated but functional kitchens or bathrooms, their response would be, “This needs to be redone before we can move in.” Oh, and don’t even show them homes without an elaborate master suite with a Ritz Carlton-quality on-suite bath. That’s a need.
I’m so thankful none of them visited my home when we daily beheld concrete floors and a rotting baby-blue Formica countertop. They would have needed Prozac.
Now before young people come after me with high-end machetes, please know you’re not the only sufferers of I Wantism. Many of you live within your means, and that’s applaudable. Though the elevation of wants over needs may be endemic among some young people, but it’s just as common among older people who feel they’ve earned the right to have what they want when they want it.
This is a subject at the forefront of my mind as I struggle with my own flareups of I Wantism. I want a remodeled bathroom with a double sink and a fancily tiled walk-in shower. I want an Alaskan cruise. I want a 2005 aqua Thunderbird – and when I see one on the road, you may think that you would need to give me one just to shut me up.
But God hasn’t chosen to give me any of those things. Not yet, anyway. (I still have high hopes for the T-Bird.) Instead, God’s Word issues a scathing indictment of my I Wantism:
You ask and don’t receive because you ask with wrong motives, so that you may spend it on your evil desires. – James 4:1
Ouch. That hurts because it’s so true. But wait a minute: Are a remodeled bathroom, an Alaskan cruise or a 2005 aqua Thunderbird evil desires? In themselves, no. The problem comes when I yearn for those things more than I yearn for the things of God.
Adulteresses! Don’t you know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? So whoever wants to be the world’s friend becomes God’s enemy. – James 4:4
My primary focus must shift from the perishable to the imperishable, from the things with which I satisfy myself to the things with which I magnify God.
But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these other things shall be added unto you as well. – Matthew 6:33
Perhaps it would be a good exercise to list our I Wants into two columns – those things that we want for our own sake and those things we want for the sake of His kingdom. Would one column be empty and the other full?
And as we view that list of I Wants, let’s ask ourselves whether our stewardship strengthens or weakens our Christian witness. By indulging our wants, are we neglecting our commitments – our tithes, our debts or our provision for our families? Yes, even God’s children fall into such traps, sometimes to escape by gnawing off their own hands.
Our first and last desire in all things should be God’s glory. The stuff of this world is going to burn – even (sigh) the most pristine aqua Thunderbird – but the stuff we do for the Lord will endure through all eternity.
But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a roar, and the heavenly bodies will be burned and dissolved, and the earth and the works that are done within it will be exposed. Since all these things are thus to be dissolved, what sort of people ought you to be in lives of holiness and godliness.
– 2 Peter 3:10-11
Jesus is coming back, my friends, and though I will be judged based upon His righteousness because I have placed my faith in Him alone, I cannot bear the thought that my works will be exposed as rubbish. What I truly want: to hear my Lord tell me, “Well done, good and faithful servant.” Now put that at the top of your I Want list.
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