Living in 3D
There’s a fair chance that when you ask someone how they are ‘going’, you will hear, ‘You know – up and down! Then, when you tell them you’re sorry to hear that, you are most likely to get reports about the ‘downs’.
Downers
‘Ups’ and ‘downs’ describe a ‘flat’, two-dimensional experience. The reasons for the downs are also described in 2D. There is always some external ‘thing’, ‘person’, or ‘event’ that is to blame. 2D’ers only see two options. ‘They’ have to change, or ‘I’ have to endure the consequent stress.
Stress becomes manageable if we see ourselves in 3D. It’s a perpetual juggling act to maintain balance between our three ‘big bits’ – our ‘personal resourcefulness’, our ‘skills repertoire’, and the ‘values base’ that drives us. The core reason for stress-induced downers is disequilibrium within these three bits. It’s a bit like a three-legged stool that’s a bit rocky when any leg is longer or shorter than the other two. A different ‘leg’ is out of kilter with the other two in each of the following cameos. Each induces stress. Each requires attention.
Maggie is a competent, resourceful person who runs all aspects of the office for a small building contractor. She really likes her job, and prides herself that ‘the Pope himself could audit the books any time he liked to drop in’. However, the boss takes on a new partner who requires Maggie to allocate materials to different jobs that will actually be used to build his beach shack. She has the skill and the resourcefulness to do the ‘fiddle’ but feels a bit stressed because the requirement conflicts with her integrity. She is not prepared to ‘adapt’ to an unethical practice, and she could not quit with dignity in these circumstances. She restores her personal equilibrium by refusing to conform, and assuring the partner that any similar request would be made known to her employer.
Tom is good at his routine factory job. The boss has noted that he gets on well with his workmates, and offered Tomthe foreman’s job. He gave Tom a couple of days to think it over. Tom felt quite stressed over the two days because, although the extra money would come in handy, he knew that his organisational skills were so poor that he would not cope with the various tasks required of the foreman. He chose to reduce his stress by ‘staying put’. He chose not to grow. He saw it as too painful to develop his personal resourcefulness in order to earn more money (which fitted his values) and support his team (for which he had adequate strategies).
Sue has a passion to preserve the environment. She is organised, energetic and resourceful. She set up a series of meetings to explore ways of establishing work groups to create a better environment. The first meeting was well attended. There were a large number of apologies at the second. There were no apologies, and only a couple of ‘weirdos’ at the third meeting. Sue was stressed by the lack of support she was getting. None of the drop-outs had the courage to tellSue that they could not stand her ‘bulldozer’ approach at the first meeting where ideas from the floor were not even ‘heard’, let alone considered. Sue was unaware of how inadequate her communication strategies were until they failed her in situations where her passions ran high and her adequate resources were fully committed.
It can be useful when experiencing stress to identify the area that is ‘out of sync’ in order to refine one’s values, improve one’s resourcefulness, or expand one’s strategic repertoire—as required. This approach both manages stress and facilitates growth.
If you fancy exploring your current personal profile in these dimensions, click here.
Uppers
A major source of ‘upper’ positive experiences for churchy people should derive from their faith. Sadly, it doesn’t seem to work as well if we hold a two-dimensional view of God. ‘He’ is ‘up there’ being selectively benevolent. We are ‘down here’ – some serene and totally trusting – some feeling seriously let down – some become progessively disillusioned – and a few ‘righteous’, shrivelled grumps being obnoxiously fervent.
A bit of 3D gives the scene a bit more depth. James Jefferis, founding minister at Brougham Place, was way ahead of his time in advocating the wisdom of blending Theology with Science and Philosophy in mapping one’s faith journey.
That’s a big ask. Again, as in the personal domain, we want the bits to ‘fit’. Again, its identifying the misfit, and seeking the means of redressing the disequilbrium for long enough to identify a new level of misfit, in sucessive rounds, for us to stay learning and die growing!
It works a bit like this. Under a theological cap many people may well be comfortable with the following propositions.
- God is all powerful – omnipotent.
- God knows everything – omniscient.
- God is all loving – that’s the bottom line.
- There is evil in the world.
Then if we don a philosophers mortar-board, and go ho-hum for a bit, we can see a few misfits and draw a few conclusions.
- If God is omnipotent and omniscient, he cannot be all loving to allow evil to exist.
- If God is omnipotent and all loving, he can’t be omniscient. He can’t know about evil.
- If God is omniscient and all loving, he cannot be omnipotent. He cannot crush evil.
This misfit will stress those who hold the earlier four beliefs.
They can deal with their stress by reframing their concept of God; or exploring the notion that evil is not evil because it gives us homework while we are ‘down here’; or by adopting the conviction that philosophers are satanic agents; or by seeking evidence from science (such as quantum physicist Amit Goswami’s text God is not dead) or a deeper theology (such a book that John has recommended entitiled Omnipotence and other theological mistakes), that might help to reduce the stress from new learnings.
Yes, that last sentence is too long. Yes, it’s a big ask.
A simple ‘Bah Humbug’ works well for grumpy 2 D’ers.
~ David
You can contact David for more information or to discuss your personal profile.
3 Responses to “Living in 3D”
David read this today – so important that we meaning I do not become paper thin and resort to something less than I am meant to be
Right on, Leonie! Glad that you are back ‘home’ again. Your commitment to your own growth is valued. Looking forward to ‘chewing the fat’ with you soon.
thanks, see you soon