What's on Your Face?

It's been over a week since I wrote on here. That's hard to believe. I guess it's been more hectic than I realized the last few days.

I dropped into WalMart this morning on the way to work and found out I can read minds!

Wait, wait! Don't go anywhere! I don't mean telepathy.

What I mean is the place a mind is supposed to be read, on someone's face. We can write our thoughts there for all to read.

I've found that as I've gotten older and picked up some gray hair, I've also picked up a bit of respect. In fact, a better word would be intimidation. When I was younger, if I got impatient waiting in line at a store, and my irritation showed on my face, the cashier would scowl at me. Now, though, if I want to look irritated, I generally get an apology that it took so long. It makes me feel bad, though, because "I'm irritated with you because of something you have no control over" is hardly the message I want to communicate to a stranger. Yet my face can actually say that to them.

This morning, I was walking out an automatic sliding glass door at the same time a lady was coming in it. Through the door, I could see she was writing thoughts on her face. There was awkwardness there, and a little fear, too, because it was still dark outside and there was no one else visible in the area. As the door slid open, I could tell she was going to look down and nervously slip past me.

It seemed a crummy way to start the day to me, so before she could do that, I fixed some thoughts in my mind. "This isn't an awkward situation, it's a funny one. Here are two strangers standing there, waiting for a glass door to open, and the whole scene seems surreal, like we're on Captain Kirk's enterprise or something." Then I smiled at her, and I know she could read the "Isn't this situation funny?" on my face. I watched her whole face brighten, her awkwardness disappear, and she smiled broadly and stepped past me.

Not telepathic, but definitely mind-reading. Absolutely silent communication, but remarkably full.

That happens to all of us every day. We don't think about it much, so we just communicate thoughtlessly with people on a regular basis. The fact that it's silent communication gives us "plausible deniability." How can we be held responsible for what we're thinking?

Sociologists say that some 60% or more of our communication is non-verbal. As Christians, that seems like an awful lot of talking to waste when we've been told that we will give account for every word that proceeds from our mouth. Maybe we should start thinking about it.

What's on your face today?