Not too long ago I went shopping for a new suit. “Just a suit,” that’s what I told myself as I entered the store. “Stay focused Judy, don’t look to the left or to the right, go directly to the suits.” I made a good run at it for the first thirty minutes. Initially I was able to stay in the suit department but after I had selected a suit I told myself that I needed a new shirt to go with it. I also convinced myself that I didn’t own a pair of shoes that coordinated well with the color of my new suit and so I needed to head to the shoe department. Forgetting my focus entirely I purchased some great earrings and a necklace and then I decided it wouldn’t hurt to have my hair colored because a new suit deserves a completed look
I walked up to the register and the clerk began to scan my items. I felt a bit of a glitch as I remembered my words to myself, “Just a suit.” As the clerk continued to ring up my purchases and as the total approached an amount I knew that I couldn’t afford I felt that glitch again and again ignored its caution. I pulled out my credit card and let her swipe it. She returned my card and I signed on the dotted line and received a bag full of things that I wanted but would never have purchased if I had had to count out that many twenty-dollar bills. I would never have spent that much money if I had paid in cash.
Have you ever wondered why it is so much easier to spend money with a credit card versus cash? In his new book How We Decide, Jonah Lehrer reveals the answer. Our brains are hard wired to avoid loss and will send us powerful signals that direct us to avoid “anything that smacks of loss.” If we are holding a stack of cash and we come to register and have to physically hand over half of the stack of bills our brains send us a signal that it is not a wise idea. Our brain reminds us what we forgot while we were shopping for accessories, “If you purchase this you will have less money than you did before. Stop and think about whether or not you want to have less.” Our brain works with us when we use cash. However, when we use a credit card our brain doesn’t recognize the purchase as a loss. You hand over the credit card and you get the same card in return. Thus the brain is not triggered to send a message to stop, instead it is tricked into thinking that it has lost nothing and so it moves ahead with the process.
Our brains don’t like loss and are hard wired to avoid it at all costs. The technical term for this brain process is loss aversion. Knowing how our brains are wired makes last weeks’ offering even more amazing. Two weeks ago we challenged the chapel congregation to consider what it would look like to move into a life of generosity. We invited the congregation to prepare to give an offering the following week, an offering that would go to start a women’s bank in Oaxaca, Mexico. We had hoped that we could raise the $5000 dollars necessary to open one bank. Last week as we passed the offering plates around the congregation I watched in amazement as students, faculty, and staff placed stacks of cash into the plates. Overriding their brain’s natural hardwiring, they made a decision to have less so that others could have more, a truly supernatural act. This week additional offerings have come in and to date we have raised $10,004.00, enough to start two banks. But wait, there’s more, with the added $5000 matching grant from the Hinsdale Covenant Church we will now be able to openthree banks.
Just a month ago a group of North Park students returned from Oaxaca, Mexico. Their hearts had been moved to help the impoverished women that are served by our partner Fuentes Libre. They brought the need, we used our networks, and God did a supernatural work in and through this community so that we could embrace loss for someone else’s gain. Come and join us this morning as we continue to hear the testimonies of those who are learning to override their brains hard wiring so that they might give in the supernatural way that God first gave to them.
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