16/05/2025
Needs vs Wants
&
Present vs Future
A comparison worthy of reflection.
Warning: long post ahead.
I’ve always been someone who looks ahead. Since college, I wrote down my goals with conviction: to pass the board exam, to land a stable job, to build a family, to go abroad, and to give back to my parents and family for all they’ve done. My vision of the future was neat and mapped out. I chased my goals with discipline and faith.
But life doesn’t always unfold the way we plan.
My father passed away at 60, and I was faced with a serious illness that changed the course of everything I once envisioned. In those moments, when your plans fall apart and your body feels like it’s betraying you, you begin to understand the delicate tension between wants and needs, between the future you dreamed of and the present you must live in.
Back then, I wanted so many things—success, milestones, security, control. But in the face of pain and loss, I realized what I truly needed—peace, strength, grace, healing, and love. I needed the presence of God more than the presence of plans. I needed my faith to carry me when the future I longed for slipped from my hands.
This shift taught me that sometimes, the very things we consider wants—ambitions, status, achievements—are not what sustain us in hardship. It’s the needs—emotional resilience, spiritual grounding, support systems—that become lifelines.
Similarly, I used to live in the mindset of “someday.” Someday I’ll travel. Someday I’ll be fulfilled. Someday I’ll repay every sacrifice. But God, in His infinite wisdom, has drawn me back to today. He has reminded me that the present is not a waiting room for the future—it is sacred on its own. And though my dreams have shifted, His purpose for me has not.
Yes, the future matters—but so does now. And while I mourn the paths not taken, I’ve learned to honor the life I am living—right here, right now.
Through every detour and delay, one truth remains: God is sovereign. He is the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. And between those two points, He walks with me—not only in the dreams I had for the future but in the quiet strength I need today.
Godbless us all.