Provision #603: What Is A Need?
by Bob Tschannen-Moran
LifeTrek Laser Provision
Today we continue our conversation about universal human needs by
identifying ten of the most salient and life-giving. We start with a theological
digression but we soon get down to business with a clear understanding of what
it takes to make life more wonderful. Doesn't everyone want that? Whether your
current strategies are working or not, the ten needs identified in this
Provision point the way to life.
LifeTrek Provision
I received two impassioned and strikingly similar reader replies to my novel
translation of the Christian scripture, John 1:1-3, in last week's Provision.
Both replies, which you can read in today's Reader's Forum,
made similar points: my translation was unorthodox and my theology was
troubling. My responses to both points are a good segue into a more robust
understanding of needs.
The Greek word Logos, used repeatedly in John 1:1-3, is a word with many
nuances depending upon context and form. According to my Greek lexicon (yes, I
once actually knew this language), the word Logos can mean "word,"
"story," "commandment," "thing," "reckoning," "reason," and "motive." I took
those different meanings into account when I rendered my translation, especially
since it led to the provocative statement that "the Need was with God, and the
Need was God."
The two readers who took exception to that translation argued that God, as an
eternal and preexistent being, has no needs. Whatever God does, they argued, is
unnecessary, since God is free to do whatever God wants. These readers were
concerned that my translation might confuse people on this important point of
transcendentalism.
Others, from different religious traditions and spiritual perspectives, would
probably disagree with the description of God as a transcendent being with no
needs. God, they would argue, is inextricably bound with life as we know it.
From that vantage point, God has needs because life has needs. The destiny of
one is to tied to the destiny of the other, and vice-versa. What's good for the
goose is good for the gander.
Although interesting, at least for some people, both of these arguments miss the
import of John 1:1-3 and both fail to appreciate the point I was making last
week about the difference between needs and strategies. When the Greek word
Logos is rendered with the English word Need, John 1:1-3 does not say that
God has needs. It says that God is Need; and that makes all the difference. God
is not a strategy to something else; God is Need and in the act of creation the
Need is made known.
I apologize for all the God talk, especially for those who do not find it
helpful, but stay with me for a moment and I think you will it relevant to even
the most immanent of worldviews.
Many Jews, Christians, and Muslims are familiar with the story (the Logos)
in Exodus 3 when Moses wants to learn God's name. God responds with the now
famous line, "I am who I am." No name here, just a clear statement of presence.
But this phrase too has many nuances and translations. It can be rendered in the
past, present, and future: "I have been who I have been." "I am who I am." "I
will be who I will be." It can even be rendered with a sense of necessity: "I
must be what I must be."
I call that necessity because there is a link between needs, values, and
identity. God is who God is, and God is no other. That was the revelation to
Moses and that is the meaning of needs apart from strategies: a Need is that
which Must Be. So put that back into Exodus 3 and you end up with one more
nuance of the Hebrew word YHWH: "I need to be what I need to be."
My readers are right: God doesn't have needs (at least not in the sense that we
have needs). But God does have an identity, an essence, a spirit, and a value
that has been expressed, that is being expressed, and that needs to be expressed
for God to be God.
Can you imagine God being anything other than love? I can't, and I see the
evidence of that love all around me. It is the Need that has come to be. No
wonder order came out of chaos! No wonder light and dark, up and down, wet and
dry, plant and animal, male and female -- all the things that make life possible
and wonderful -- came into being. The Need would do no other.
So what is a need? It is that which must be to make life possible and wonderful.
That is the essence of love and, some would say, the essence of God. That is
also the essence of those who are made in God's image. There are different
understandings of that as well, with some traditions extending the divine canopy
over all things seen and unseen, but to the best of my knowledge all traditions
extend that likeness to human beings in one sense or another. The Need that
created life is in life and will not be denied.
That's why needs have so much dynamic energy. When needs are being met, we feel
wonderful and we want the experience to continue. When needs are not being met,
we feel terrible and we want the experience to stop. The living energy of needs
is such that it drives human emotions and, in turn, human behavior. We can view
all of human history, including the recent machinations of the global economy,
as a quest to satisfy needs.
In the purest sense of the word, needs are ends in themselves. We do not meet a
need in order to get something else. We meet a need because the need is
intrinsically valuable and worth meeting. There is no "so that" when it comes to
true needs. They stand alone and require no explanation as to why they are
important. They are self-explanatory. When you look at them, you say, "Well, of
course, everyone needs that."
Unfortunately, as I wrote last week, we often confuse needs and strategies. That
gets us in trouble whether we are talking about God or human relations. Once we
latch onto the idea that we need a particular thing to happen in a particular
way, we set ourselves up for power struggles and disappointments. As long as we
stay focused on the underlying needs that any particular strategy is trying to
meet, we open ourselves up to new possibilities and adventures.
So what are these intrinsically valuable things that everyone needs? We'll be
talking about them for weeks to come. They have been described in many ways by
many people for many millennia. No description captures them all, or ever will,
but I find the following ten needs, across five spectrums, to cover a lot of
ground:
- Subsistence-Transcendence. Once we receive the gift of existence, we all
share the same basic human needs to support our physical survival. These
include such things as sustenance, health, healing, procreation, and sensory
stimulation. We fight long and hard over the strategies to meet those needs,
but no one denies their importance as long as we are alive. Transcendence
appears to lie at the other end of the spectrum, but it is just as
elementary as subsistence. It incorporates such things as presence, meaning, inspiration,
evolution, beauty, harmony, flow, and space. If we have the eyes to see, we
will notice that even little children evidence this need.
- Safety-Challenge. Little children also make clear the needs for
both safety and challenge. On the one hand they love to venture out,
to risk, to learn new things, to discover, and to test their limits. These
challenges are all part of the trial-and-correction process that leads to growth and
development. But little children are also quick to run to their parents'
side when they feel fear, hurt, pain, anger, confusion, or rage. They need
safety and protection. They need security, comfort, justice, respect, and consideration.
Don't we all! These things are not strategies; they are not options relevant
to some people and not to others. They are requirements of life itself.
- Work-Rest. It's no accident that God worked for six days, to
create the universe, and then rested on one. These needs are universal.
People can neither work all the time nor sit around doing nothing all the
time. There is a rhythm to making life whole. People get into gear when they
have reason to become active; they pull back and rest when they need to
recover. Work incorporates such
things as industry, exercise, purpose, contribution, competence, and
self-efficacy. Rest includes sleep, relaxation, play, leisure, ease,
rehabilitation, gratitude,
mourning, and celebration. There's nothing sacred about a 6:1 ratio between
work and rest (that's a strategy), but the idea that we need both is
universal.
- Honesty-Empathy. This spectrum slides along a continuum between sharing
what's alive with me (honesty) and understanding what's alive with you
(empathy). Both are important and both take courage. It's not always easy to
speak the truth; the same can be said for hearing the truth. Honesty
requires clarity, self-understanding, authenticity, integrity, and
self-expression. Empathy requires openness, compassion, connection,
acceptance, and love. Understanding the distinction between needs and
strategies can facilitate both honesty and empathy since it tends to
eliminate guilt and enemy images.
- Autonomy-Community. I find it interesting that some of the words
for God in the Hebrew scriptures are plural words and that many in the
Christian faith have found it helpful to think and to sing about "God in
three persons." What's up with that? It seems to have something to do with
the needs for autonomy and community. No one is an island, not even
God. Autonomy has to do with independence, freedom, choice,
control, creativity, individuality, and empowerment. Community has to do with interdependence,
cooperation, inclusion, trust, mutuality, and power with. Everyone needs
both poles on this spectrum along with every imaginable combination.
Over the next ten weeks I will explore these ten needs to see what they
have to teach us about the good life. Coaches often work with people who
have that goal in mind. In the process, we often disabuse people of the
confusion between needs and strategies. The idea people have when they first
come to coaching is usually a strategy and strategies are always optional,
always expendable. Needs, on the other hand, are the living source of what
makes life good.
No wonder creation burst forth with such explosive energy: it was the Need
itself becoming manifest in love.
Coaching Inquiries: When you look at those ten needs, which spectrums are
most satisfactory in your life? Which spectrums are most unsatisfactory?
What longings do those needs stir for you? How could you appreciate those
needs more fully? Who could you connect with to talk this through?
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LifeTrek Readers' Forum (selected feedback
from the past week)
Editor's Note: The LifeTrek Readers' Forum contains selections from the comments
and materials sent in each week by the readers of LifeTrek Provisions. They do
not necessarily reflect the perspective of LifeTrek Coaching International. To
submit your comment, use our Feedback Form or
Email Bob..
Encouragement: I have noticed on a number of occasions in Provisions your
willingness to view our world very holistically - and in a more specific sense -
your willingness to mix a spiritual perspective with a business perspective. All
too often, people separate the two as if they were not integrally linked even
though they are. And in so doing, many business writers often literally don't
see or won't acknowledge the elephant in the room. So, hats off to you for not
falling into that trap.
On the other hand, your flippant replacement of the word "Logos", or in English
"Word", with the word "Need" in your
most recent
Provision is, in my mind, completely outrageous. Might I illustrate this
absurd replacement with the following example. There is another commonly
referenced section of the New Testament Bible often referred to as the "Love
Chapter": I Corinthians 13. As you may often know, it is read in many weddings
because of its "love" focus. So, might I try to obtain some clarified meaning by
replacing the word "love" in this chapter with another word meaning the exact
opposite, something like "hate"? If so, the chapter would end, "And now these
three remain: faith, hope, and hate. But the greatest of these is hate."
I do this as a complete exercise of lunacy. Replacing one word with another that
means the exact opposite is outrageous and meaningless.
So, back to your replacing of the word "Word" with "Need". The meaning of John 1
is that the Word - Jesus Christ - God's Own Son - was in fact fully man but also
fully God himself. Thus, the Word, or the Son, one of the three-fold
manifestations or personalities of the one triune God of the universe, is the
exact opposite of "Need". He is self-existent, in need in no way from eternity
past to present to eternity future. He may and in fact has chosen to desire to
have a relationship with us, and paved a path to allow us to have that
relationship through his Son Jesus Christ, but he is in no way replaceable by
the word "Need".
Thank you for listening.
My wife is a trained coach and I would like to take a coach-training course,
but right now I am finishing a seminary degree so I've got a lot of classes I'm
working on. The fact that I am involved in such theological classes is what
brings my interest to what you wrote in your
recent
Provision.
I'm not writing to criticize the fact that you edited Scripture - I think that
is fine within certain boundaries. I like taking ancient Hebrew and Greek and
making them relevant to a new situations. The issue that I wrestle with is needs
applied to God, and I think it would play out in the Jewish culture and Muslim
studies, but I think it is most evident in Christian dogma about the Trinity. I
don't think God needs anything.
God created people to need things - food, air, water, relationships, etc. God,
Himself, needs nothing. God didn't need light - he is the light (described in
the end of Revelation). God doesn't need sky, animals, or any of that. We
sometimes attribute personifications to God, and one of those is 'needs.'
For a long time I thought God probably made people because He was bored or
lonely all by Himself and needed something to spice up His existence - that he
needed people somehow. As I've studied the Trinity more, I've learned that God
has perfect relationship within Himself. He doesn't need people to be fulfilled,
but rather He invites us to enjoy His fullness. Some describe the Trinity as a
"perichoresis" or dance that the three persons of one God are active in, yet
they widen their dance as to invite people in, Adam and Eve for starters. Our
sin ruined the dance so we had to be made right before we could truly be part of
the dance again. I like that picture of God.
We are not sufficient islands. We are not made to be okay on our own. We are
only complete when we are part of that relationship with God, though we might
have a taste in our relationships with others, especially our spouse.
Blessings to you, and thanks for sharing your helpful thoughts. I wanted to
return the favor, if this is beneficial to you at all. Top
May you be filled with goodness, peace, and joy.
Bob Tschannen-Moran, President
LifeTrek Coaching International
121 Will Scarlet Lane
Williamsburg, VA 23185-5043
Email: Coach@LifeTrekCoaching.com
Phone: (757) 345-3452
Fax: (772) 382-3258
Twitter: LifeTrekBob
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