Imitation

Did you know that one of the great things that make humans unique is our ability to imitate? Sure, other animals can imitate sounds (like parrots), basic movements (like apes), and songs (like whales), but humans take imitation to a whole different level.

Children learn how to talk on phones, put on make-up, and even to misbehave by imitating adults and other children. And we don’t finish imitating when we reach grade school. To become musicians we imitate Mozart, to become physicists we imitate Einstein, and to become chess grandmasters we imitate Kasparorov.

Being natural born imitators means that we have a responsibility to find the right person to model ourselves after.

No wonder Paul encouraged the Corinthians, “Be imitators of me, just as I also am of Christ.” Paul knew that the Corinthians needed someone holy to imitate, so that they might be more like Christ. Sometimes we need to look for that sort of person, who is actively imitating Christ and whom we may imitate in turn.

Look around you. Perhaps you know someone with a loving spirit and strong character. Pray that you might be more like him or her.

Dr. Curtis Lehmann

OC Christian Counseling

Breathe

Pause a second and pay attention to your breath. You are breathing every minute of your life and yet, most of the time, you don’t even notice. As you notice your breath right now, thank God for giving you that particular breath, allowing you to live.

There is also a spiritual practice that you can utilize any moment you become aware of your breath. As you exhale, simply confess your dependence upon God and any sin that is troubling you. Then, as you inhale, accept God’s forgiveness and allow God’s spirit to come into your mind, heart, and soul. Breathe in. Breathe out. Be thankful.

Dr. Curtis Lehmann

OC Christian Counseling

Inviting God Into the Moment

Right now, I would like you to take a minute to focus on what is around you, something other than this glowing screen. Perhaps you might see something new. Invite God into this moment. Ask God what He wants you to notice around you. Pray about what you see around you, even if the object seems trivial, and see what this opens up.

You may start praying about a water bottle but then finding yourself thanking God for clean water and praying for those who lack access. Simply tell God whatever grabs your attention and ask him to speak to you through that object. You may be surprised to find God can speak to you through even the most mundane things in your life.

Being Present

Have you been spending your day rushing from one thing to another? Sometimes we tend to fly through life so quickly that we hardly notice we are missing wonderful things. In the next few days, I would like to lead you in a few meditations meant to help you reawaken your awareness to the world you live in.

Look for the nearest window. Open the blinds or actually step outside if you need to or want to. Focus on something natural, something alive. It might be a flower, a tree, a bird, or even just the grass. Allow yourself to marvel at God’s creation. Imagine God creating that life with a stroke of a brush or with a sculptor’s chisel against clay. Notice any so-called imperfections in that life. Then notice how even the imperfections can be beautiful. You may even want to thank God for bringing that life to your attention. For the rest of your day, see if you can notice God’s creation this way again.

Dr. Curtis Lehmann

http://occhristiancounseling.com/staff/dr_curtis_lehmann.html

Virtually Attend my Dissertation Defense

If you are interested in virtually attending my dissertation final oral examination, you can attend by signing up here. The meeting will begin at 8AM (Pacific).

Reasoned Action and Conversion

My dissertation has been focused on understanding how spirituality affects how we decide to engage in moral and immoral behaviors. The model I am using for this relationship is the Theory of Reasoned Action. Reasoned Action states that behavioral intentions are the result of two main influences: personal beliefs and social norms. Personal beliefs are related to what we believe about the behavior: is it enjoyable, is it instrumental for something else, and is it moral? Social norms include what we think other people want us to do and what other people actually do.

I have been wondering how Reasoned Action could be applied to religious conversion. When a person thinks about changing their religious convictions (or lack thereof), what influences are important for them? Here are some possibilities, based on this theory:

Attitudes: people convert because they think it will be enjoyable, pleasant, and maybe even fun to be a different religion.

Instrumental Beliefs: converting will help them accomplish some goal in their life, such as quitting alcohol or raising good religious children.

Moral Values: conversion is important because it is the "right" thing to do, because it is God's will and because it is true

Descriptive social norms: converting is attractive because a lot of their friends are that religion or have just converted, their example is influential

Injunctive social norms: the person believes that their friends and other influential people in their lives want them to convert (regardless of their own faith)

Perceived control (an aspect of Planned Behavior, not Reasoned Action): the person believes that it is possible for them to convert, that they could live a new life.

As you can imagine, all of these dimensions will likely be important influences on why a person converts. Two questions emerge: which of these are most important to the person who converts? And which of these reasons are acceptable to the religion as a reason to convert.

For the first question, this could suggest possibilities for ways to help people convert. If it is Attitudes that is foremost, then how do make the religion appear more enjoyable? If it is Injunctive Social Norms, then obviously sharing faith will be an important facet for helping people convert. But this brings us to the second question, what are the preferable reasons for conversion?

I think it is likely that religious clergy would want people to convert out of their moral values, a belief that it is true and good. But what if a person wants to convert so that they can meet dateable men or women? Obviously, some religious traditions would care more about intentions than others. If we "sell" a religion based upon Attitudes, then do people actually internalize their faith? If we pressure people to convert by sharing our faith with them regularly, does this create the type of faith that we hope for?

These questions are complex. Maybe I will be able to read up on any previous research in this area... or maybe even do some of my own research. Any thoughts or comments?

LOST and Job

This past Sunday brought the finale of LOST. As an avid fan of LOST, I came to the episode with great anticipation but also fear - how would this all be resolved. While to a great extent I am borrowing from a number of other in-depth and scholarly reviews, (though in far less depth) I hope to add my own perspective.

But first, I would like to debunk any notion that the series was Christian - that it was an attempt to put forth a Christian worldview. I can understand the longing for that, but I think that it would ultimately fall flat in the face of the much broader spirituality it presents. However, I still believes it has great value for the Christian because it provides a unique view into what it is that people want.

I would like to develop this idea in the frame of the Biblical character of Job. Job was a man of "science" or in his case theological/legal law. While it is easy to get caught up in how Job's response to his tragedy is portrayed as blameless, what is easily missed is Job's long discourse with his so-called friends. Here he actually calls God to trial so that God would pronounce him innocent and declare that his suffering was truly "for no reason." He wanted to have an actual court case where he shows that God made a mistake in causing his suffering because only evil people suffer and Job is a good man. In the loss of so much within his life, and the rejection of his friends, he sought out the one thing that he believed would bring his life meaning again - certainty in his knowledge of God as retributive.

I think many viewers of LOST have been caught up in a very similar attitude towards the finale. They want the mysteries solved, they want to be justified in their search for meaning in the mythology and mystery of the island. They have seen characters die without much cause, and they have chosen to invest less in the characters than in the mysteries.

Returning to Job, we find that he continues his long discourse until finally - surprisingly - God arrives! Job's opportunity to appeal his case is allowed - or so he thinks. No, instead God declares the world a mystery. Some may think this is a harsh response to Job and, yes, it is. But so is Locke's response to Jack, that he doesn't really have a son. Sometimes awakenings are jolting. But Jack recovered and so did Job.

Job's awakening was that God was not "reasonable" but rather mysterious. But, in the midst of that, Job realized that a reasonable, predictable, and comprehensible God was not what he ever really wanted all along. What Job really wanted was to know that God was there, that God would show up. Job wanted to know that God cared for him. So God had to reveal the error inherent in Job's search for acquittal: that he was trying to find fulfillment in having the mysteries solved.

Instead, God presents himself to Job and, rather than condemning him for his presumptions, invites him into a deeper relationship, one where the mysteries remain.

The conclusion of LOST is really about showing that ultimately (hopefully?) we cared about these people much more than we cared about the mysteries. Sure we tried to subjectify the mysteries, hoping that we would find fulfillment in them, to experience them as things we can relate with. But, really, would we have been remotely satisfied if every mystery was solved but the characters whom we cared for were lost in the midst?

Sure, we feel loss that the mysteries remain. We will never know for certain how it would have felt to have those questions answered. But I know the feeling I had when the lives of these characters found a conclusion. And that assures me that it is real relationships that matter. It is when God shows up when we realize what we really wanted all along.