As I was at work the other day I saw about 5 candy bars sitting on a table in the middle of the office. Naturally, I walked by to see if they were free for the taking (I am susceptible to chocolate cravings). I saw a little note that read, "$1 each for soccer team. Pay Vince." I thought, "There are 5 of them, so I will come back later."
As the day progressed, I would pass by the table every hour or so doing various tasks. I noticed the stack of candy bars gradually go from 5 to 4 to 3 to 2 bars over the course of a few hours. As it got down to 1 candy bar, I found myself experiencing a sense of urgency because, "they were almost gone, I had to act now if I didn’t want to miss out!"
I wanted the object more because there were fewer of them, seemingly, available to me.
The genius was that Vince actually had a box full in his drawer, but he understood a bit about human nature. He strategically only placed a few out on the table to create that sense of urgency, therefore increasing sales.
This technique is commonly used in sales and I am amazed at how many people (myself included) fall for it. There is just something about missing out, even if it is something that we don’t even want or need, no one likes to miss out.
I have noticed that I can normally identify what is NOT God’s will, by a panicky, over-inflated urgency to do something. Any major decisions in my life where there was a whole lot of pressure to decide, "NOW! You have to make a decision right NOW!" proved that there were other options that I was not seeing, or it wasn’t God’s best for me. God is in control of what he is doing, and if He isn’t running around frantically in heaven to get things done, then maybe we shouldn’t either.
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Yes Bob, it is really true. We need to decide for ourselves.