Are we excessive in our wants and our 'needs?'

I am fuming, along with thousands of others, over the news story about the televangelist in Louisiana who believes he needs a $54 million jet to fly around the world telling people about Jesus. The man shot that misguided myth out of the sky with an even more outrageous statement. He implied, were Jesus on the earth today, He would be zipping from place to place preaching His message in similar fashion.

One of the hallmarks of Jesus’ life is its simplicity. He said things like, “The foxes have holes and the birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head.”

His was an itinerant ministry, relying on friends to open their homes when He was passing through. I’m sure there were also many nights spent under the stars.

He told the rich young ruler, “One thing you still lack; sell all that you possess and distribute it to the poor, and you shall have treasure in heaven; and come follow Me.” For all his initial enthusiasm, we’re told the man “became very sad, for he was extremely rich.” He couldn’t do it.

Jesus’ follower, James, called out the early church for giving “special attention” to the one who shows up in their assembly “with a gold ring and dressed in fine clothes” versus a “poor man in dirty clothes” who is basically told to sit in the back row.

And then we have to consider the moment Jesus watched wealthy people dropping the big bucks into the temple treasury. Along came a poor widow who gave two copper coins amounting to almost nothing.

Jesus observed, “This poor widow put in more than all the contributors to the treasury; for they all put in out of their surplus, but she, out of her poverty, put in all she owned, all she had to live on.” She would have been astonished to know how highly He rated her.

If these things sound like Jesus is likely to be jet setting the globe, then I have to question if the man from Louisiana is talking about the same person I read in my Bible. His insistence on having the best has caused me to consider, though.

How often am I excessive in things I want or think I need? If I look close enough I may not be all that different from Mr. Televangelist.

Maybe all my fuming is just smokescreen.