From this weeks email

I am the sexiest man alive. Seriously, I am. When I was in college, attending my Sociology classes, I learned about this little phenomenon called a self fulfilling prophecy. As a joke, a couple of my friends and I decided to make our own outrageous self fulfilling prophecies. Mine was that I was the sexiest man alive. To this day, I look for opportunities to mention this fact to see what kind of reaction I get. Lately, I get responses that are very serious, usually short like, “No you’re not.”

One of the enduring concepts of the Episcopal Church is the idea, “What we pray, shapes what we believe.” The things we pray week in and week out, day in and day out, shape what we believe. I haven’t done any scientific studies about this, and I have been told by some important people that this idea is a bad idea, but I really like it. The tradition of the Episcopal Church is one of small “c” catholic tradition. A tradition that embraces a great deal of diversity, in fact our diversity in, thought, ethnicity, theology, is considered a strength and not a deficiency.

It is also something that is enduring and true. A self fulfilling prophecy changes a behavior about something that in reality may not be true, but in a persons mind makes something true. Like how I believe I am the sexiest man alive. I am the only person who believes that. What we pray, shapes what we believe is not based on whim or upon one person’s desire to alter reality. Rather it is rooted in a heritage that is ever evolving, prayerful and part of the work of our ancestors as well as those who will eventually live on this earth. That work being a discerning effort to discover constantly anew the glory of God in our lives.

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