“What’s your favorite religious symbol?” asked the religion teacher. Three hands went up, and three students named the same symbol for three different reasons.

“The crucifix,” said the first. “When I look at what Jesus did for me, I realize that’s why he’s number one in my life.”

“The crucifix,” said another. “When you’re having a hard time in life and you look at what he went through, you realize you can get through it and move on.”

“Crucifix,” said the third student. “When I see what Jesus did for us, it reminds me what we need to do for others.”

How can the same symbol mean three different things to three different kids in the same grade?

I interviewed about 100 kids as part of my doctoral research, videotaped their comments, and concluded that adolescent spirituality is three-dimensional: vertical, horizontal, and internal. (You can read more about my research in Sometimes We Dance, Sometimes We Wrestle: Embracing the Spirituality of Adolescents, Harcourt, 2000)

Some young people have a highly “vertical” spirituality in which they invest most of their spiritual attention to God “above.” They pray regularly, ask God-focused questions in class, and sincerely maintain an authentic, strong, and legitimate relationship with the Transcendent. A teen with vertical spirituality might say, “God and I are tight. I pray all the time. Every night before I go to bed, before a big test, sometimes in the middle of the day, even on the ride to school in the morning sometimes.”

Other kids have a highly “horizontal” spirituality. Their faith is all about treating other people kindly. These are the students who will say, “Because of my faith, I try to accept everybody. Don’t care what they’re into. No matter what group they belong to, their music, or their race.” These are the students who readily show up at service projects, raise questions about social injustice in class, and whose faith motivates them to treat others fairly. 

And some students have a highly “internal” spirituality. These are the kids whose faith helps them cope with the things that are going on inside them. These are the kids whose spirituality helps them heal from past hurts, bounce back from disappointments, and navigate their way through rough weather. These are the students who will tell you, “Because of my faith, I’m able to handle my stress a lot better.”  Or, “My faith is helping deal with my sadness (or anger).” Or, “Because of my faith, I’m able to accept myself more—even if I’m not as smart, or popular, or athletic, or as hot as a lot of other people.”

That’s why three students can get three different truths from the same crucifix.

But kids—indeed all of us—can invest so much energy into one dimension of our spirituality that the other dimensions are underdeveloped.

Highly vertical kids can have a strong relationship with God but still hook up, tell racist jokes, blast people on the Internet, or cheat on finals. Highly horizontal kids may still have an undeveloped vertical dimension, saying, “I believe God’s watching over me and stuff, but I don’t know why you have to pray or go to Church, ’cause what God really wants from me and my faith is to treat other people right.” And kids whose highly developed internal spirituality helps them to cope might not necessarily be inclined to serve others or submit to the Transcendent.

So—suppose you decided to intentionally attend to all three dimensions this year. Would your work be enhanced? And your students’ spiritually more deeply developed?

Is it possible that the spirituality of your school, religion department, or campus ministry emphasizes one dimension and neglects the others? Is it possible that each of us approaches our work by emphasizing our own favorite dimension(s) at the expense of the other(s)?

Suppose we intentionally help students identify the dominant dimension(s) of their spirituality and cultivate their least dominant dimension(s). Suppose we helped them design their own Spiritual Growth Plan for the year.

Suppose we began to ask:

How and When do our retreats and religion classes cultivate the vertical?

How and When do we cultivate the horizontal?

How and When do we cultivate the internal?

Would our work be enhanced?