July ‘ 23 Rectors Message
In times of anxiety and confusion human mental functioning can retreat (or rise). I used to see this in first-time church camp guests. Some children and tweens would be basically themselves. Others would show otherwise un-demonstrated maturity. However, more would show signs of ‘regression’. Things they could handle at home suddenly needed lots of handholding. We see much of the same thing in adults encountering sudden changes: what you may have heard me refer to as ‘lizard brain’ thinking. We are graced with the ability for complex thought and reasoning, but in stress we retreat to the parts of our mind that we share with amphibians. One of the challenges of adolescence is that young people are growing beyond their lizard brains but not always sure what to do with the new ways, and so sometimes overreacting and scurrying from one idea or emotion to the next, a bit like a scared lizard (or chicken). Young people sometimes can see and feel that they don’t want to react that way, but they haven’t developed the mental muscles to easily get back to more complex reasoning – and that creates more lizard-y behaviors.
My training in transitional ministry shows that congregations and people can do much the same things in the context of pastoral leadership changes. Some will show extraordinary maturity and step up in ways they never would if all was ‘normal’. Others will go on just the same. And some of us will do the lizard brain thing and for a time forget what we know. When accepting my new call began to become real, I can see now that I did some of the lizard brain thing. It was adrenaline, and it was love, and it was trying to solve a complex issue that isn’t mine to solve. Here you will find letter from the Vestry with an update about the process beyond my ministry with you. And it has changed from our initial plan, one that for me was from the lizard brain, one that was forgetting how capable and cooperative Christ Church is. Y’all didn’t need anyone to rush in with a quick solution; you have wonderful gifts for teamwork and discernment, and you have been through a successful search before (at least I think it was). If anyone felt rushed by my idea, (and it was very much mine) please forgive me and the lizard-brain love that it was rooted in.
Lastly, as you move forward through the processes of profile, prayer, and discernment, remember your gifts of wholeheartedness, cooperation, curiosity, and peacemaking. Recall that you do amazing things together every year. You rolled through the confusion and changes and challenges of the pandemic like servants of ultimate purpose. So, if you notice ‘lizard-brain’ reactions over the next many months, take a deep breath. Call on the presence of God and one another. Pray. We are offering prayers just for those moments. Hold between you and God the priest that is just waiting to be called here, even if she or he does not know it yet. As you meet the differences that surface, the tasks that used to be smooth being rough, pause and reflect before reacting, speak directly and honestly with thoughts and feelings, or dissolve what doesn’t help our mutual flourishing in Christ’s name. We all have lizard brain moments; may we offer one another the peace of God in rising beyond them.