Posture

Before you read any further, notice your body posture. Whether you reading this from your desk in an office, hunched over top of your laptop at a coffee shop, or laying down on your couch on your smartphone, what do you notice about your body posture? Are your shoulders stiff or relaxed? Are your eyebrows furrowed or resting? Do you feel tension in your body or are you at ease? Now that you have thought about your posture, did you notice yourself correcting or changing it?

Often, the kinds of postures we assume while sitting, standing, or scrolling, are largely formed at the subconscious level. We do not typically think about our posture until it is pointed out, or until we feel tension that results in neck or back pain. It is not something we really consider until there is a presenting problem where our bad posture limits our participation in a choice of activities.

We often assume social and spiritual postures in a subconscious fashion, for better or for worse. This has been true of my physical posture as well as my posture towards my sisters and brothers from various Christian traditions. A decade ago, I took a few courses at Redeemer Pacific College, a Catholic college affiliated with Trinity Western University. If I am honest, I came into that academic environment with a defensive, argumentative, and rigid posture as a young 20-something evangelical loaded with far more ‘answers’ than questions. That equation started to shift slightly as I was not only introduced to academic course material, but engaged in mutually stimulating conversations that carried over from the classroom to the local parish, from the local parish to the cafeteria, and from the cafeteria to the living room.

My initial argumentative and defensive posture started to give way to a posture of curiosity. It was less rigid; my shoulders could come down. There was less tension. Rather than leaning away, I was leaning in. Rather than listening to refute my opponent’s arguments, I was listening to learn from friends that I had a growing respect for. Rather than making assumptions about a group I knew little about, I spent time alongside them at their parishes, classrooms, and dinner tables. We prayed together, each in our own way, but together. We read scripture together, each coming at passages from our own vantage points, but together. We attended mass together, with varying levels of participation, but together. It was perhaps this latter practice, attending Catholic mass as an evangelical Christian, that made me more consciously aware of my physical, social, and spiritual posture towards my sisters and brothers. As I participated in the physical movements of the mass, from sitting, to standing, to kneeling, to processing forward to receive a blessing, I noticed that the regularity of these rhythms began to shape me.

Over the years, whether it be in conversation among peers, reading Christian classic writings from people like St. Francis de Sales, St. Therese of Lisieux, St. Ignatius of Loyola, or reading works from more contemporary figures like St. Oscar Romero, Elias Chacour, Pope Benedict XVI, Pope Francis, and Dorothy Day I have attempted to maintain a similar posture. One that is open, but discerning, questioning, but willing to learn, maintaining the convictions of my own tradition, but open to being shaped by others. I have seen in many of these authors a deep contemplative spirituality than has led to visible peacemaking work in challenging contexts. Peacemaking is a significant strength and emphasis in the evangelical tradition that I am a part of today, but I have also seen it lived out in various contexts, capacities, and lives of Catholic brothers and sisters. Perhaps here there is more opportunity for reciprocal dialogue, mutual learning, and common practice that is empowered by a deep, contemplative spirituality. And perhaps these shared conversations and spirituality might produce cooperative peacemaking efforts in the places we live, work, and play.

My experience in this space of holding healthy conversations across various Christian traditions might be summarized in another analogy that benefits from the same premise of posture. Imagine yourself out for a hike on a favourite trail. After a couple hours of hiking in the hot sun, you notice a beautiful, clear, cool stream of lifegiving water. You kneel near the stream and as you reach out into the stream, you have a decision to make now as to how you will reach out in this space. There are three options within arms reach. First, one can enter into a space like this with clenched fists. This is the defensive, argumentative posture. Sometimes we come into conversations with sisters and brothers from different Christian traditions in this way. We come without seeking to understand one another, but rather to protect ourselves and our beliefs from the other. In this posture, we can only harm, not receive. My sense is that we have held this posture towards one another for far too long, there has been much harm done. Not only that, you cannot receive from a stream with this posture. You will go thirsty.

Second, one can enter this space with hands and fingers spread wide. On a hot day, putting your hands in the stream and letting the water rush through your fingers will feel great. But you cannot drink in this posture, you will go thirsty. To think that we can enter into conversations with our sisters and brothers from different Christian traditions and simply act as if we agree on everything would be untruthful. Put another way, it would be disingenuous to enter into dialogue and not hold on to our core convictions that make up so much of our life and our faith. This is the “anything goes” kind of conversation may feel good on one level but does not often help us really grow together. This path of least resistance is refreshing for a time, it will not help us quench our thirst.

Third, one can enter conversations with sisters and brothers from different Christian traditions with cupped hands. This is a posture of receiving as well as one of holding. In this posture, one can receive the cool, thirst-quenching water on offer from the stream. It can pool in one’s hands long enough to drink. This image speaks to the possibility of receiving from one another. To receive, a posture of openness and vulnerability is required. This posture also enables us to bring our own convictions to the table, held in lifegiving ways, rather than being held with clenched fists where they can do harm.

Some may notice resonance between the analogies I have used in the writing of this article with my experience, as an evangelical Christian, at mass. From the physical posture of kneeling, something rarer in many evangelical traditions, to the cupped hands of receiving Christ in the eucharist, a posture I have observed my Catholic brothers and sisters form on many occasions. These physical, tangible pictures, which are etched in my memory, have shaped my learning in ways I am grateful for. I bring them with me into my work as a pastor in another tradition that looks and feels different. This posture I learned from the mass, I reflect back to my brothers and sisters from various Christian traditions as a way for us to speak graciously to one another, with a posture of openness and humility, in order that we might learn together, grow together, and receive the good gifts Jesus has on offer for us, together. In this spirit, and in this posture, we can cultivate spaces to share the treasures of our traditions with one another, without bringing harm or simply choosing the path of least resistance. Such a posture can stimulate prayer for, and with, one another as well as further conversation. It enables us to come to a table of reciprocity and mutuality, seated with a posture of humility and openness towards one another. We do this not simply to talk, but to do the hard work of learning from one another and perhaps even from Jesus, so we might grow together. My sense, and experience, is that the topics of conversation are likely just as important as the posture we take in those conversations. Let us sit up straight, put our shoulders down, and lean into conversation together so that we might not only talk about Jesus, but simultaneously practice the way of Jesus together.