If you've ever been on a mission trip to a community within a culture of poverty or talked to people who have, you might of heard something along the lines of, "They have nothing, but they are so happy." And then, "They are so clean, though."
This could be true or it could just be that they just seem happy when the gringos come to play. Maybe they aren't so full of joy during the day to day grind of the survival/exist existence.
But if they are so happy in spite of their miserable material condition, it might have to do with their limited choices.
If you can't quite follow the logic, try shopping at the grocery store ALDI.
A few things you might pick up on:
*They have most everything you need, just not so many choices.
*There's for the most part just one brand of the item you are looking for, and it's a brand you probably don't find in other stores, so you don't have to worry that some other store has it cheaper.
*You don't have to worry about feeling bad that the products you buy there don't fulfill your expectations, because if they don't it's not like it's your fault. It was the only choice you had!
*The products you buy at ALDI work just fine. If they don't make you happy, it's pretty clear it's not because of the product's lack of value. Shopping at ALDI forces you to confront what is really making you unhappy.
*You also learn that shopping carts have value, but they don't have to cost you anything. You have to pay a quarter to get one, but as long as you bring it back to where it goes, you'll get your quarter back.
*You have to buy shopping bags, so you plan ahead and bring in reusable bags or you use old boxes to haul your groceries. Where you quarters go affects your behavior.
In alot of ways shopping at ALDI is a return to simpler times. The days when there was less choice and more...happiness. (Or so it goes in our those were the good old days memories.)
I suppose we can fall into the same trap of offering more stuff and causing more unhappiness. That wild game dinner you are planning for the men's group: Is that an ALDI offering or a Wal-mart super store inventory item?
Chasing after another worship style or a new fitness program or new way of attracting community members without a clear understanding that really the one brand of church commodity we carry is meaningful relationships is likely to leave us all a little more less happy.
Maybe what our ministries and programs need from time to time is a trip to ALDI and some time spent in a culture of poverty.
You can learn more about the paradox of choice from this video of Barry Schwartz at a 2005 TEDTalk:
2 comments:
They have nothing but they are so happy!
They are so much more spiritual than us!
Mission trips to Latin America seem to elicit those comments. It is a generalization that we make about the entire community based on a small sample for people that happen to benefit from our visit and are the most active members of a church.
I wonder it after we are gone that the people we visited exclaim that we are the most happy and spiritual people they have ever met (at least until the next mission group arrives).
Maybe the circumstances we are in lead to this impression by everyone. It seems that this may be a really good thing for all of us? Is that the real reason we go on mission trips?
Brian, one of the lasting memories of any trip I've been on was dancing of the streets of Chimbote Peru at the 47 1/2 year anniversary of the Villa Maria Church. You later called it a subliminal moment. And it was. That moment taught me about subliminal moments. I can understand that better now and find them in all sorts of times and places. Subliminal moments are a mixture of people, moments, emotions, thoughts, desires, even anxieties. I guess that made that trip "worth it" for me.
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