Small Matters?
I read about a test conducted at MIT that illustrates the general character of a large portion of our society today. Now, first of all, I really do not like lumping all of society into one group or trying to characterize America or some other country by a single test conducted somewhere at some time by someone, but I just did… why? To illustrate my point, of course.
Dan Ariely, who holds joint appointments in MIT’s Media Lab and Sloan School of Management, performed a test in the dorms at their school. Here’s how the test worked: Ariely and his students went around and left six-packs of Coke in randomly selected dorm refrigerators all over campus. When he checked back in a few days, all of the Cokes were gone.
But when they later placed plates of six loose dollar bills in those same refrigerators, not a single bill was missing when they checked back. Even though the value was comparable, and thus the situations were supposed to be equivalent, people responded in opposite ways. Why is that?
Well, for one, because a Coke just tastes really good! I mean, if they did the test with Pepsi, those would all still be sitting there… who in their right mind would justify stealing a Pepsi.
Chuckle, right? However, even with tongue-in-cheek humor, we are touching on a key element of our behavior… justifying what is right and wrong to get what we want or make wrong decisions. We see this in everyday decisions, running red lights, buying things compulsively, and even making business decisions… Can you say Enron, Bernie Maddoff, or Lehmen Brothers?
Of course, none of us would ever stoop to justifying wrong behavior… I mean, there are those other people (this was so hard to type when making quotation marks in the air with my fingers… “other people”… there, that’s better). I mean, we just wouldn’t try to justify our wrong decisions, compulsive buying, indulging, or anything like that… not me, not my readers (Glenn types, with his eyes looking off in the distance so he doesn’t convey the wrong idea or give the impression he is in denial…)
Ah… denial, sweet denial… a place I can visit and feel good about myself. A place where I can justify my wrong decisions and do what I want, because really, it is all about me, right?
The apostles make an interesting request of Jesus in Luke 17:5:
The apostles said to the Lord, “Increase our faith!”
Now, these are a bunch of dudes walking around with Jesus, spending a good portion of their waking moments with Jesus, and basically hearing and seeing everything Jesus does… and they want the Lord to increase their faith. Jesus’ response is in the following verse, Luke 17:6:
He replied, “If you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mulberry tree, ‘Be uprooted and planted in the sea,’ and it will obey you…”
Jesus could have said, “Ok…” and waved His hand to grant their request. Instead, He lays out a comparison to those having little faith and what can be done with a little faith. This is sort of weird until you look back in the previous chapter… a previous chapter for us, but all within about the same conversation for the apostles. So, I am left wondering if the apostle’s request for more faith comes as a result of what Jesus teaches them in Luke 16:10:
Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much, and whoever is dishonest with very little will also be dishonest with much.
Or, to put it in the language of MIT, whoever can be trusted with a Coke can be trusted with a dollar. I think we are very much like the apostles in looking at matters of faith and trust in worldly terms, judging our faith by visible results and measures.
“Oh look! Someone left a Coke! They obviously forgot it or don’t want it, so let’s make sure it doesn’t go to waste… after all, if I don’t drink it, someone else will… and everybody is doing it nowadays…” Chug, chug, chug.
“Oh look! Someone left a few thousand dollars in this stock account! They obviously forgot about it or don’t want it, so let’s make sure it doesn’t go to waste… after all, if I don’t spend it, someone else will… and everybody is doing it nowadays…”
“Oh look! Someone just ticked me off! They obviously forgot how important I am or don’t want to recognize how important I am, so I am going to get them back by yelling, shouting, and all sorts of revenge… after all, if I don’t make them pay, they will never learn… and everybody is doing it nowadays…”
If we are honest with ourselves… oh sweet denial, where art thou… we will gain a better understanding of what the disciples were asking when they wanted Jesus to increase their faith. We will learn we are much like His disciples in wanting to go directly to larger matters of faith to obtain that which can move mountains, and losing focus on the small matters that count just the same.
True faith… true, honest faith, in the eyes of the Lord, has nothing to do with the size or amount of work needing to be accomplished. In His eyes, true faith has nothing to do with the size or purpose of our decisions. By the way God measures, all of our decisions are equally important and none may be justified away as miniscule.
I believe God isn’t so much concerned about the size of our decisions as He is about the heart of the decisions. Is our focus on ourselves or on Him? What is the direction of our life?
He is more interested in winning all of me than winning all of the world. He is interested in winning all of you than winning all of the world.
This makes it more difficult for me to figure out how to snag that Coke out of the fridge at MIT and justify many more decisions I would like to leave in that sweet state of denial. However, if I am going to be serious about my faith, I need to be all in.
What about you?
I encourage you to ask the Lord to reveal any areas in your life where you live in denial and possible justify your decisions. You might want to also ask for the strength to see yourself in these areas truthfully, because that whole denial thing can be blinding.
Contact me if you need help in the area, want to pray together, or just want to chat about this subject.
Glenn Sasscer
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