A VISITOR FROM OUTER SPACE

Assume for a moment that you have a visitor from outer space who is an anthropologist who has been sent to study aspects of earth’s culture. In this case, ET wants to understand Christianity and its impact on American culture. Being an anthropologist, ET is under some restrictions not to interfere but only to observe. ET has chosen you as a worthy proponent of Christianity. ET can observe you and how your faith is lived out but can’t ask you any specific questions.

OBSERVING YOUR LIFE

Given that admittedly fictional scenario, I want you to look at your own life and try to understand what ET might learn from observing you live your faith. Remember, ET doesn’t have any doctrinal background and can only interpret what it perceives.

First, consider your weekly actions and interactions. Make a list of what you do in one column, and in a second column, make a note of the conclusions ET might make from observing those activities. Your calendar can jog your memory on scheduled events, but also note worship, and preparation for it, hospital visits, spontaneous conversations with members, emails and telephone conversations that stick in your memory, committee work, study time, devotional time, family time, denominational time, etc.

As you list the many activities that engage you week after week, even you might be surprised at the variety of activities that fill your days. Reflect on how an outsider might interpret such actions. What does it suggest about your faith that you spend that much time preparing for and conducting worship? What does protecting time with your family say about your faith? What about the time you take for counseling those in stress, being involved with children and youth, engaging colleagues in responding to issues on the national front? By thinking like an anthropologist, you begin to get some idea of how your life is testifying to your faith.

EMOTIONS ARE YOU

Continue to imagine ET, the visitor from outer space, as it proceeds to investigate the Christian faith by viewing how you live out your faith.

Using that same list, but assuming that ET now has the privilege of observing not only your behavior but also your emotional response to those actions, continue to consider your list. Look back over your list and note how each of your weekly activities made you feel and how you chose to respond to those feelings. Take a few of those events that generated the strongest impressions and consider how your faith shaped how you decided to respond. If, for example, someone’s behavior irritates you, how does your faith affect how you choose to respond? Or, how does your faith shape your response to a hungry individual you see on the street? How does your faith form your reaction when members of a committee fail to fulfill their responsibilities? How does your faith sustain you during times of anxiety?

BEING COMFORTABLE WITH YOURSELF

In sum, how would you want this outsider, who can see your behavior and sense your emotional response to it, to interpret what you do as a reflection of your faith? When both your actions and your emotional response are consistent reflections of what you believe, you will have a sense of comfort with who you are.

EXCERPT FROM SOON TO BE PUBLISHED CLERGY SPIRITUAL HEALTH.