No, the title isn't accurate for me... my poor students if that were true! However, it's something I hear pretty often. When people ask what I teach, or when the conversation rolls around to something involving math or science, it's virtually inevitable that someone well actively, and obviously check out, usually exclaiming 'I'm not a math person', or 'I'm not a science person'. Usually it is said with pride, often with nods of approval from other 'not science people'.
I have a problem with this.
Now, I don't expect everyone to be a mathematician, or a scientist or engineer. I don't expect everyone to love these topics, follow them in their free time, and laugh at geeky pi jokes. I get that it's not everyone's cup of tea (or slice of pi, haha!). However, we live in a world where numeracy is vital, and where virtually everything we use or do relies on some pretty advanced science. We live in a world where charlatans peddle fear and profit of the scientific ignorance of others, and lack of ability to read and understand some pretty basic science leads to things like children dying because their parents are afraid of vaccines, and rubber bands with a sticker on them sell for $40 because they are 'ionic power' bracelets. You can live in this world as 'not a science person', but your experience is going to be less than full at best, and you will be vulnerable in your ignorance.
Okay, so who cares... what is the point of this post? I've been a science geek my whole life, and will continue to be long after geek chic is a thing, long after people think that posting pictures from I ******* love science makes them a science person... truthfully it's not that big a deal to me if this area of interest is popular. Actually, I'm just using it all as a long winded analogy that begins with a bit of a confession:
I'm not a huge Adoration person (it's a Roman Catholic thing for anyone reading this who isn't Catholic). It's not that I disagree with it, or that I don't 'get' it. I understand the reasoning behind it, I see it as a really high form of prayer, and truth be told I'm a little envious when I talk to someone with a huge connection to it. I've been to it many times, I've purposefully gone from time to time, I've spent time in that form of prayer... I've just never had the draw or experience other people do. I believe with my whole heart in the Eucharist, and have had powerful experiences at Mass. The times I've fallen away it is never long before I miss it and feel strongly pulled to go back. It's not that I'm somehow opposed to the tradition either. I find meaning in the Rosary, love a chanted litany, and St. Patrick's Breastplate is one of my favourite prayers.
This is the challenge of our faith. We are Catholic, which means universal. One of the things I believe that means is that we are universal in the ways God speaks to us. I am rarely more deeply in prayer than when I am on a journey up a mountain, deep in a rarely explored river canyon, or facing a challenging and adventurous set of rapids ahead. Much of that experience and the reflection after is meditative and contemplative for me. I know others meet with God in very different ways, through adoration, through traditional prayers, through charismatic prayer, through service, through contemplative prayer, through lectio divina or visio divina, through intellectual study, etc. In other words, just as our world is a complex interweaving of math and science, literature, art, social interaction etc., our faith is a complex interweaving of sacraments, spiritual disciplines, traditions, knowledge, emotion, and too many kinds of prayer to count. To limit ourselves to be the spiritual equivalent of 'not a science person' is to put ourselves in the dark, ignorant of a rich world and vulnerable in our ignorance.
The challenge here is twofold. The first is to be open to God's presence in others. This is hard, because when someone's spiritual practice is much different than our own (if you ever want to witness an example of this observe how much I stand out at a charismatic renewal service!), it can be hard to accept that as them communicating with God (with the caveat that we are talking about purposeful, active communication, not an excuse for passivity or laziness). The second, and I see it as much more important, is to work hard to become more and more universal ourselves. Every form of prayer, every discipline and activity, is an opportunity. I firmly believe it is an important job of Catholics to be open to all the kinds in the Church. For someone like me, that means going to adoration anyway, and not letting myself not be an adoration person. I don't know if/when that time will reveal something to me, or when the opportunity to pray that way will be important. It prevents fickleness robbing us from opportunities to build community and spend time in our faith and time in prayer, and it helps us be in community. I haven't seen adoration in the way that many others do, but when I try to look at it through their eyes, it brings be closer to them and to God.
The year of faith is almost done, and there is an opportunity in this last month of it. Spend some time becoming the spiritual equivalent of 'a science person'. In other words, take an opportunity to purposefully stretch yourself into some area of your faith that is dusty or undeveloped. Become more of a 'science person' in faith by delving into the prayer that has always seemed distant or remote to you. To put it more succinctly, I'll help you haul yourself up a frozen mountain if you take me to adoration.
Thoughts on matters of faith, education, and whatever else sparks my interest.
