Contemplating "Enough"

Matthew 25:31-46

31 ‘When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on the throne of his glory. 32All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats, 33and he will put the sheep at his right hand and the goats at the left. 34Then the king will say to those at his right hand, “Come, you that are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world; 35for I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, 36I was naked and you gave me clothing, I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited me.” 37Then the righteous will answer him, “Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry and gave you food, or thirsty and gave you something to drink? 38And when was it that we saw you a stranger and welcomed you, or naked and gave you clothing? 39And when was it that we saw you sick or in prison and visited you?” 40And the king will answer them, “Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family,* you did it to me.” 41Then he will say to those at his left hand, “You that are accursed, depart from me into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels; 42for I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, 43I was a stranger and you did not welcome me, naked and you did not give me clothing, sick and in prison and you did not visit me.” 44Then they also will answer, “Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not take care of you?” 45Then he will answer them, “Truly I tell you, just as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me.” 46And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.’

My refrigerator is getting old. It's 22 years old and showing plenty of wear. The grill on the bottom has broken off long ago and now we have cracked the inside wall of the refrigerator door and there is insulation showing. We've tried to glue it back with superglue to no avail. It is getting time to replace it.

When I bought it, I really wanted a larger refrigerator. This one is 17 cubic feet; I wanted 22 cubic feet, but we couldn't really afford the larger one. I am now contemplating purchasing the one I "really want" -- huge, french doors, sliding freezer drawers and a enormous $2,200 price tag. I get stuck on that price. It seems really enormous to me. That money represents a full month of work for myself (plus a little). And to be honest, that refrigerator would be more than enough. The frig that is $1200 would be more than sufficient and give me that little bit of extra room and the French doors for big trays.

Why do we always want more than enough? And what exactly is "enough"? There is a book the LH and I have read a while back -- I don't' remember the title exactly or the author -- I believe it is "Your Money or Your Life" by Joe Dominguez -- that states that enough is when all your basic needs are met. One dollar more than that becomes "wealth."

Well then, what are "basic needs"? According to another book I read recently (I believe it was "Red Letters: Living a Faith That Bleeds" by Tom Davis) there are 5 basic needs:

Food
Shelter
Clothing
Medical
Education

What then is enough for a frig? I think I need a new refrigerator because I can't imagine having the insulation showing is a good thing; but how much is going to be enough? It does fall into the "having food" category, but how MUCH refrigerator is necessary? Or am I thinking about this too hard?

Likewise, I am working on the house. We are also looking at purchasing a "permanent" place -- a residence to retire to eventually and to use as a base of operations as we itinerant. Many of the places we are looking at have one of these on it:



Is this sufficient? Is this enough? My impulse is to junk the trailer and build fresh, but there are so many who would be grateful for this. What is enough?