Scan this…

I’m that guy. The guy who actually hopes he’ll get stopped by the woman with the clipboard at the mall: “Would you answer a few questions about toothpaste?” The guy who actually listens to the telephone opinion surveys. But what I always wanted was to be…drum roll…a Nielsen family. You know, that fabled group of people whose viewing habits determine the ratings for television programs.
In years past, Nielsen families had to keep a diary of all their TV watching. Now, however, there are other ways to keep track. When we got a Tivo recorder several years ago, I was offered the opportunity to have my Tivo report to the Nielsen company. I said yes. Months later I was offered another opportunity, one which was much more personal. We became one of a legion of families across the country who agreed to report in great detail what we purchased. We were furnished a hand-held scanner and instructed to scan the barcodes on every grocery item, every book, every CD…just about anything that had a UPC code on it. For items like meat or fruit, we had to enter the weight, price per pound, whether the product was organic or not, whether it was prepackaged.
I began the program eagerly, even though it took 20 minutes to scan everything whenever we brought groceries home. We received occasional gifts in the mail and were eligible for prizes each month. But the main incentive for me was the idea that someone was finally listening to my opinion. After eight months of faithfully recording every purchase, I suddenly grew tired of the process. I realized we tended to buy the exact same items every week. I realized I was no longer fascinated by scanning things. I realized that the things I wanted to share with people were more important issues than what brand of granola bars we liked. Why wasn’t I sharing about joy, grace, love? Maybe because they’re not things we can buy. They’re by-products, not “buy” products, gifts that come from the One who truly does value our opinion.