Communication....

Communication is one of the things that I tend to "pride" myself in doing well (no comments from my friends in Memphis reading this). I am very big about people being and acting the same in all settings. I understand that we have different "hats" such as dad, husband, friend, teacher, boss, employee, etc. and that these require different skills, emotions, sounds, talks, euphemisms, etc. For most, this translates to acting a certain way in one setting, and acting a different way in another setting. For example, my boss would not take to kindly to me slinging a light saber around during a meeting, while I spoke to him in a broken "Irish accented" pirate dialect. This type of action may communicate very well to my son, but is not the place for a business meeting. As some would say, "there is a time and a place for everything."

Recently, I finished teaching a series at church and summarized it with: "being the same in all settings". In other words, act like a Christian at work, at home, at church, on vacation, shopping, etc. Christiainity is asking what Jesus would do when you are driving to work, buying a car, filing your taxes, and even sitting in the pews on Sundays. Depending on the setting, it should not be a surprise to someone who knew you how you would act. We still need to do our jobs. We just need to do them the way Jesus would do them.

Well, it occurred to me that I may not be as open as I thought I was. So, in an attempt to act the same, or at least not hide my emotions as much in all settings (to some degree) has brought some interesting results. People have started asking me, "what's wrong?" more frequently. I have gotten in more, "heated debates" over my open views about certain things. And still others have expressed their concern about my actions, and how it seemed as if I had "too much on my plate". All this, even though from my perspective I am still as "busy" as I usually am. The only difference is that I am a little more open (transparent) about my emotions or thoughts.

Is it possible that when someone says, "be yourself", what they are really meaning is, "act the way I assume is yourself?" I don't know; just me being open....