Twice the past couple of weeks the term Rorschach Test has come up. You know, that weird thing where you are shown an ink blotch and asked what you see in it?

Why all of the sudden did this psychological term come up? Perhaps you are unfamiliar with this term? Here is information from https://www.rorschach.org/

Contrary to popular belief, the Rorschach Inkblot Test is NOT strictly a projective psychological or personality measure. In the strictest sense, the Rorschach Inkblot Test is a test or assessment of perception.

It is designed to evaluate how someone approaches their environment, In other words, it asks the question, “How does someone view and organize the world around them?”

Through analyzing what someone sees, where they see it, and what about the blot makes what they saw look like whatever they saw, the psychologist is able to make various hypotheses about how that person views and organizes the world.

Furthermore, the psychologist can compare the person’s perceptions to a clinical or normative sample. From this analysis, the psychologist then makes inferences about the person’s approach to the world (which is largely stable and described often as character or personality), insofar as, one’s feelings, thoughts, stress tolerance, relationships, and self-perception shapes and influences how that person views and organizes their world. Thus, the major areas evaluated are:

1. the person’s emotional world,
2. the person’s cognitive world,
3. the person’s ability to deal with situational stress,
4. the person’s perception of others and relationships, and
5. the person’s self-perception.

I am certain that those with strong political identification see things quite differently from those with strong christian identification. Think of the late Pope Francis and his conversation with Vice President Vance. Pope Francis referred Vance to an in-depth discussion with his assistant, likely as Pope Francis no longer had the strength or stamina to engage the younger firebrand.

Aljazeera reported: US Vice President JD Vance has met with the Vatican’s top diplomats, discussing the politically fraught issue of migration months after Pope Francis rebuked the new US administration’s hardline immigration stance.

Vance, a Catholic convert, held what the Vatican described as “cordial talks” with Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin – the Holy See’s second highest official after the pope – and Paul Richard Gallagher, the secretary for relations with states. https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/4/19/us-vp-vance-discusses-thorny-issue-of-migration-with-vatican

How do you view the world and the things you catch glimpses of? As I age things that used to bother me greatly have moved into the back room of my concerns or off my radar completely. Are there things you cling to as greatly important. Are there things that you have simply let go of? I wonder what VP Vance makes of the Pope’s insistence regarding migration issues now that the Pope has passed to his eternal rest? Does Vance see his audience with the Pope as a great privilege during the man’s last few hours upon earth or his right as an American diplomat? How are his political views reconciled with his new found Catholic faith?

Only God reads hearts. And I am glad. I do not want to know what lies in the hearts of others. Perhaps the Risen Christ offers us regular opportunities to interpret inkblot images in our daily life? At best, I can only hope to reign in my own heart and mind to obedience to Christ. That alone will take all of my energy for the remainder of my life.