Jesus and the warm glow
A crisis in meaning? “We are seeing a real crisis in meaning in the workplace,” Jeff Van Duzer told a seminar at MEDA’s annual convention in Niagara Falls, Ontario, Nov. 1-4. The dean of the business school at Seattle Pacific University cited a Harris poll that found only one in five employees are enthusiastic about the goals of their organization, and only one in five see a connection between their work and the goals of their employer. Put those together and you get a very small percentage of workers who see any link between their work and anything they care about, he said. “From a business standpoint a crisis in meaning is a crisis in productivity,” Van Duzer said. “From a Christian standpoint, what a waste to think you are investing a hundred thousand hours of your life in work that you don’t see as having any significance to anything you care about.” (See full report on page 12)
Do you make your kids proud? David Henderson is described as an “angel” investor who puts money into companies that are doing good things with water. He believes investing in water and waste water innovation can provide excellent financial returns while helping to solve environmental problems. A reporter asked him if his young children knew what he did for a living. Henderson said, “One of the proudest moments I’ve had so far was when I went and observed one of [my eight-year-old daughter’s] classes. My daughter got up and said: ‘I’d like to introduce my Daddy who is saving the world’s water.’ I was like, ‘Wow’.” (Globe & Mail) The Marketplace January February 2013
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Is there a scientific reason why people are generous? Researchers at the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke in Bethesda, Maryland, examined the brains of volunteers as they chose whether to give money to charity or use it for themselves. The scientists used a technique called functional magnetic resonance imaging, which can map activity in various parts of the brain. Their findings were reported recently in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. They concluded that the people who chose to keep the money they were given did not experience the same joy of those who decided to give theirs away. The researchers had managed to examine what went on inside each person’s brain as they made decisions based on moral beliefs. What they discovered was that when people were giving money away the part of their brain that was active was its reward center, the “mesolimbic pathway” that is responsible for doling out the dopamine‑mediated euphoria associated with sex, money, food and drugs. From this they concluded that the warm glow that comes from charitable giving has a physiological basis. All this medical research confirms that Jesus was right after all: “It is more blessed to give than to receive.” — Adapted from a sermon by Scott Ruddick, MEDA’s director of Integrated Support Services, at Leamington (Ontario) Mennonite Church
