Do you have an open mind? I thought I did, and through the course of my life, I have come across three theories or experiences that challenged my open mindedness. I’m going to share those theories with you and you can judge for yourself whether you have an open mind and are willing to accept things outside of your current belief system.
This isn’t one of those silly internet tests. This is simply an opportunity to evaluate yourself, just as I evaluated myself when I experienced these theories for the first time.
Open Mind Defined
Before we get too far, it’s going to be useful to understand what is meant by the term “open mind.” An open mind is simply a mind receptive to different opinions and ideas. Having an open mind doesn’t mean accepting everything as truth, but rather being open to new possibilities. Then taking that new possibility, applying it to the known facts, and deciding whether you interpret it to be true or false.
Why is an Open Mind Important?
An open mind leads to new possibilities. New possibilities lead to new thoughts and experiences. New thoughts and experiences lead to growth. Therefore an open mind is important to our personal growth.
The Open Mind Experiment
This is the first in a four part series. I’m going to share these three experiences or theories that tested my open mindedness, and at the end of the series, I’ll wrap up with some of my own thoughts on these experiences. We’re going to start easy. Here is the first experience I had that tested my open mind.
First a little background. I was raised with a Catholic upbringing. We went to church every Sunday, followed by Sunday school classes. I’ve got some definite opinions about this, but I’ll save that for another time. Suffice it to say that even by 2nd grade, I had been taught much about the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, many bible stories, and the life of Jesus.
My first mind opening experience occurred during 2nd grade Sunday school. I’ll give the assignment to you, as it was given to me.
If you were to meet Jesus on the street today, what would he look like? Draw a picture to show what he would look like.
Go ahead and do this now, if you have a pen and paper handy, otherwise, just picture it in your head. Make sure you take a couple minutes to get a good drawing sketched out. Got it? Good, now scroll down a bit and I’ll share my experience.
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The Results
Did you draw your picture or get the image in your head? Here are the results from that 2nd grade Sunday school class.
Every single person, with one exception, drew Jesus with a beard. To say that another way, we had one young open minded student, in a class of twenty that drew Jesus beardless.
Did you draw him with a beard? Or, perhaps with long hair or a flowing white robe? Unfortunately that one open minded student wasn’t me, I drew the typical bearded, long hair, white robed Jesus. Of course it’s entirely possible that Jesus could be clean shaven. An open minded thinker would see this as a possibility. You would have to cast off the societal norms, the persuasions, or even the brain washing. You would have to analyze the question with an open mind and an unbiased opinion, and then work out your own opinion based on all the available facts. When you think about it, there is absolutely no reason Jesus would have a beard today. With a plethora of shaving utensils available in the marketplace, it’s entirely likely that Jesus would be clean shaven.
The Impact
Although I didn’t realize the full scale of the impact at the time, the experience taught me to not always accept the popular image, but to make my own analysis and come up with my own decisions.
It’s funny, I had almost forgotten about this experience until I was brainstorming for this series. I had already written parts two and three, and this experience popped back into my head. This is a good intro to open minded thinking; the next two experiences came later in life and were therefore more complex.
I’d love to hear from you. Did you picture a bearded or a beardless Jesus? Do you have an open mind? Could you accept a beardless Jesus as a possibility? Let me know in the comments section!
The Open Mind Test – Part 1: An open minded 2nd grader
The Open Mind Test – Part 2: A Great Teacher, A Little Philosophy, and A Whole Lot of Love
The Open Mind Test – Part 3: Our purpose in life
The Open Mind Test – Part 4: Conclusions, Comments, and a Challenge
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Hi Eric – I imagined a guy with shoulder length hair, a goatee, jeans, and a leather vest. Kind of a hippy. Maybe I envisioned that because I wasn’t churched as a kid or brought up in any organized religion, which I think probably has something to do with the response a person gives. I think I was also harkening back to a 70’s version of Jesus from “Jesus Christ Superstar.” So even though my image doesn’t fit the stereotype, I’m not sure if it proves I’m open minded. But I strive to be.
Patty @ Why Not Start Now?´s last blog ..How Do You Sustain Meaning In Life?
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Eric Watermolen
Reply:
November 3rd, 2009 at 8:09 pm
Hi Patty, Sounds like rather than being influenced by the church, you had a little influence from popular culture. I like your description, sounds like he’d be fun to hang out with! Now that I think about it, I’ve never seen Jesus Christ Superstar. I’ve heard of it many times, but never watched it. Time to update the Netflix queue!
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Hi, Eric!
Yes, I did indeed picture him with a beard. However he looked more like a stereotypical middle-eastern Jew and not the blondish-brown haired, blue-eyed white man that was so popular to use to symbolize him by in the recent past.
I DO see your point and can readily accept where you’re coming from.
We DON’T know, and we can’t know.
Until we meet him.
Krissa´s last blog ..My life used to be different.
[Reply]
Eric Watermolen
Reply:
November 4th, 2009 at 10:03 pm
Hi Krissa,
Thanks for stopping by and thanks for sharing your image of Jesus. I’m finding it very interesting to see how different people picture him.
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Hey Eric, its interesting to see how people picture someone they have never met. They are only left with the pictures portrayed by others.
I was involved with Christianity for 17 years taking in a lot of what was considered truth.
” come up with my own decisions” – this is freedom, the only thing that retrains people from doing so, is fear. Fear that they might get something wrong, and that the source of life will hold it over them.
Yet even those who feel making their own decisions is wrong, are still make their own decisions, the decision to believe another vs listening to what inside they feel is their path
Keep up the good posts, I really enjoyed the read.
[Reply]
Jon,
Very good! Your ideas echo my own. Coming up with your own decisions is freedom. I feel it’s much better to do my own research and figure out what feels right to me, than to follow blindly without thinking about the reasons behind things and without investigating the alternatives.
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what up Eric !
I’ve always thought of Jesus as someone fun to hangout with. Someone who is very open minded and nonjudgemental at all. And yes, my image of Jesus has a beard =)
cant wait to read more of this open mind series !
[Reply]
Eric Watermolen
Reply:
November 13th, 2009 at 10:14 am
You know, I have a similar vision. Some cool guy with some deep insights, always fun to be around. It’s hard to shake the beard, seems like anywhere we look we find a bearded Jesus. Thanks for stopping by and I hope you enjoy the series!
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