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\u201cI feel trapped!\u201d\u00a0 This was the only response I could muster amid a panic attack I had at 11,200 feet in the San Juan National Forest. It was two weeks in the making, that panic attack. I was one of nine students participating in a seminary class entitled An Adventure in Wilderness and Spirituality. Adventures included ropes courses, rock climbing and rappelling, and a week backpacking into and out of the mountains. Each day was a challenge to my emotional, physical, psychological, and spiritual self. The panic attack came on the heels of a solo overnight next to our last day in the forest; My-self could not tackle anymore challenge and I literally lost it.\u00a0 From deep within my soul, the howling of anguish went on for easily 45 minutes while I repeated over and over, \u201cI feel trapped!\u201d Out in the wide open, non-confining space of the Colorado mountains, I was overwhelmed by claustrophobia. However I stuffed the anxiety that was lighted within and choose to count it as exhaustion.<\/p>\n
Two months later, while sitting in a theology class discussing Tillich\u2019s understanding that God is the \u201cground of all being\u201d and the implications for humans\u2019 identity in being. I finally grasped the heart of my panic attack. During that two-week adventure, the noise of life fell away and through all the challenges, my being, being present with the Ground of all Being led to a deep merging. That ignominious morning God was about to overtake me. I was about to be consumed by God and it scared the bejeebies out of me. There was nowhere for me to go. I could not escape God. I could not become invisible or become unseen. Like an octopus, I would have appreciated having 200 suckers to don an invisibility cloak of shells and stones! If God swallowed me up who would I be?\u00a0 Psalm 139 became for me a living experience. \u201cCan I go anywhere apart from Your Spirit? Is there anywhere I can go to escape Your watchful presence?\u201d[1]<\/a> Terrified to lose my-self, and nowhere to hide, I ran away from the Ground of my being.<\/p>\n This memory came flooding back as I read Akiko Busch\u2019s How to Disappear: Notes on Invisibility in a Time of Transparency<\/em>. How to Disappear <\/em>is a collection of essays tethered to the argument that in today\u2019s social media saturated world, choosing to be invisible or becoming unseen has important value for one\u2019s identity. Busch finds intersections with science, art, literature, history, culture, and nature as she dives into the sea of her personal reflections on the facets of invisibility she\u2019s considered aspiring to. These essays also include her commentary on the deep flaws of the over-visible obsession our current culture including \u201cFacebook depression, one result of this ceaseless exposure\u2026the anxiety induced by social comparisons and the feeling of being less attractive or accomplished than other users,\u201d and \u201cdisquiet that comes from relinquishing \u2013 the personal information that is key to retaining a sense of identity.\u201d[2]<\/a> At the heart of Busch\u2019s book is the\u00a0 search for understanding identity and the ways she has found herself in those times she has chosen to hide.<\/p>\n I found myself asking theological questions on some of her thoughts, such as, disappearing in collaborative work[3]<\/a>, cloaking[4]<\/a>, silence[5]<\/a> concealing ourselves[6]<\/a> and anonymity in community[7]<\/a>.\u00a0 I also would like to engage in comparing Friedman\u2019s unpacking of self-ish and empathy with Busch\u2019s chapter, The Vanishing Self<\/em> [8]<\/a>and the intersection with the gospel. These wonderings are tied to Busch\u2019s question, \u201cWhat is the difference between being invisible and just landing in a blind spot\u201d[9]<\/a> and are important aspects to dive into for my NPO framing of the identity of church.<\/p>\n Many aspects of the book evoked responses but, as what comes as no surprise, chapter 4, Invisaphila, captured me. Busch\u2019s beautiful narrative of her scuba diving experience in the Caribbean resonated with my spirit. As a Certified Master Scuba Dive Trainer, I could wax on poetically about what being 60 feet underwater does for my emotional, physical, and psychological self. Submerging in the ocean I find my \u201cHidden Place\u201d[10]<\/a> with God. It is the place where I am most found by God, not in an act to be invisible but to be the most seen. Back on those mountains I ran away from God in fear of losing my-self\u2026my identity\u2026of how I wanted to define myself. Returning to the sea is a decision to run into God\u2019s all-consuming presence instead of running away. I am no longer afraid to have my identity transformed.\u00a0 I desire to be seen, to be known, to remember once again who I am and whose I am.<\/p>\n Busch describes the amazing diversity of how creation camouflages itself seen in the ways insects, birds, squids, etc hide themselves from predators. In the Documentary, My Octopus Teacher<\/em>, filmmaker Craig Foster shares the astounding ways the octopus can deceive. The most mind boggling is the ability to use it’s 200 suckers to create a security wall of shells and stones. Camouflage, deception, disappearing oneself is ultimately about protection. The difference between other creatures and humans is that for humans it is a choice not generally instinct. Humans can choose to face vulnerability of self with disappearing or with hope of transformation.<\/p>\n As a church leader I must help people recognize the difference. I must nurture an understanding of the difference between disappearing oneself due to fear and the paradox of losing oneself to find oneself in God. Embracing the identity we find in being consumed by God. I must help remove the blind spot so that people can partake of the Trinitarian joy of being separate yet together, invisible yet seen.\u00a0 In God, with God there is no need to engage the 200 suckers to create a cloak of shells and stone for God is the ground of all being.<\/p>\n [1]<\/a> Psalm 139:7, The Voice Translation<\/p>\n [2]<\/a> How to Disappear. Pg 38.<\/p>\n [3]<\/a> Ibid. pg 21.<\/p>\n [4]<\/a> Ibid. Pg. 53.<\/p>\n [5]<\/a> Ibid. Pg.74.<\/p>\n [6]<\/a> Ibid. Pg 119.<\/p>\n [7]<\/a> Ibid. Pg 131.<\/p>\n