I See Me?

As a pastor when it comes to sports, I am a layman. While I have spent quite a bit of time playing and watching sports, I am a layman. The x’s and o’s and routes and schemes remain a mystery to me.

As a pastor when it comes to finances, I am a layman. I have always liked numbers and have managed a family budget through four daughters and their braces, glasses, used cars and college. But I rely on the expertise of our congregation’s treasurer, financial assistant and director of operations to really understand our financial position. (I think sometimes they think I am not listening.)

As a pastor when it comes to psychology, I am a layman. Although I have had some training in it and certainly apply much of it in my work, technically I am a laymen in the field of psychology. I must confess, like so many others, it is kind of a hobby. Many, many of us like to serve as armchair psychologists, often in exercises of self-diagnosis.

It is as a layman, an armchair psychologist, that I put forward this assertion. All this Zooming cannot be good for us. And more specifically, what cannot be good for us is spending so much time looking at ourselves.

Studies are underway and articles are being written about why Zooming causes fatigue and stress.

I’m no psychologist, but I think it is because we were not meant to look so much at our own faces.

There are two theories about the origin of the human race, and both support this assertion.

If the human race was created by an all-wise God (which is what I believe), and if it was a good thing for us to look at our own faces, he could have, would have, made it so. He made it so we could look at our hands when we are sawing a board or eating our dinner. He made it so we could look at our feet when we are tying our shoes or searching for a foothold on a rocky path. Shouldn’t we conclude that if easily looking at our own face was a good thing, he would have made it so? And if he did not, which he did not, should we also conclude that doing so would be detrimental in some way?

If the human race evolved slowly over the millennia, and if it was always the better abilities and characteristics that survived in adaptation, why did the eyes end up where they did? Is there an inherent advantage for survival to see everyone else’s face but not your own? Is there an evolutionary disadvantage to see your own face easily?

A couple of things can happen when you look at yourself. You can become discouraged by what you look like. You can become proud by what you look like.

And there is a third thing thing that can happen. You can be so busy looking at yourself that you miss something crucial in the environment around you.

Regardless, looking at your own face takes an effort to go against how we were designed (creation) or how we came to be at the top of the heap in the animal kingdom (evolution). Sometimes it can be a very good thing, like when we fix our hair in the morning. Sometimes… and maybe often times… it is a detriment. Remember what happened to young Narcissus.

Does looking so much at yourself cause psychological harm? That seems like a significant question for me this week. Will we all become Narcissus?

Yesterday I spent four and a half hours Zooming. Many of you spent more. That’s a lot of time looking at ourselves, going against either our created or evolved nature. What impact is this having on our psyche?

I am guessing that it is not a good thing. The sooner we are back together face to face in a way that we are not looking at our own faces, the better.

But then what do I know? I am just a layman.

What seemed significant to you this week?