Urgency Hypnosis

Today, as I think everyone is the entire world must know, is called "Black Friday," as in the busiest shopping day of the year.  That's awful name for it--I saw somewhere that it should be named "Greed Friday" but that really doesn't make sense.  People are not being greedy today--they are actually being generous as most shop to purchase gifts for others.  Well, some of them are.  I just read that about 50% of what is bought today will be for the self, not someone else.

Anyway, I, with a real dislike of very crowded situations and with a growing dislike of having to get up particularly early, have not joined this madness since I was a teen and my mother, sister and I would head out.  Yes, Virginia, stores did exist back in the those ancient days--and cars filled the parking lots even then.  But what we didn't have then is electronic shopping, although print catalogs were great fun!

Yesterday, I found myself somewhat mesmerized by the deals periodically popping up on Amazon.  I managed to snag several toys for the grandchildren, but missed some real good deals.  By the time I got up this morning, I had already missed a few others that I would very much liked to have bought. So now, I've got my eye on something that will be available in about 38 minutes.  My timer is on, and I'm going to be ready to leap on it the moment it becomes available if the price is right.

I also know this is kind of silly.  It's not something I would have bought normally, and although I think it will make a nice gift, this is very much an impulse thing.  In other words, I've permitted myself to be nicely manipulated by the idea that I'm going to get a great bargain and simply MUST GET THIS or my life will be empty, formless and void. Hmmmm--if that is the case, perhaps God can get busy doing some re-creative activity in my life.

OK, 20 minutes now before my deal becomes live. My nervousness grows. Although some items have not sold out, others disappear in minutes.  I've put myself on the "waitlist" for a couple, but didn't make the cut.  In other words, scarcity is planned into this system.  Increase the urgency, decrease the thoughtfulness.  

That's the life most of us life. Filled with urgency, devoid of thoughtfulness. Get this done NOW!  Fix this system IMMEDIATELY!  Turn this gigantic, lumbering ship THIS VERY SECOND or off with your head!

Don't you feel it?  I see it with so much that I'm reading about the state of the church, especially what I'm reading about my own much loved denomination, The United Methodist Church.  We've got to make changes THIS INSTANT to keep from going under.  But we are dealing systems that have been in place for a long time, and we now face the repercussions of decisions made 50 or 100 or 200 years ago.  Life is just that way.  Quick decisions have long term consequences.  Thoughtful decisions do as well, and many of those consequences, however unintended, have devastating effects.  

Now, I'm down to twelve minutes.  I've got the window for amazon sitting open next to this doc window so I can leap as soon as the item becomes available.  A timer underneath it marks the passing of the seconds.  My breath quickens with anticipation . . . 

I tell myself, "As soon as I've snagged this one, I'll head to the garden for the post-freeze clean up."  But of course, I'll first check and see if something equally as tantalizing is going to show up in an another hour or so.  Just in case, just in case.

When hypnosis of urgency wins, the timeless quality of wisdom loses.

Ten minutes to go.