The premise is this: the door closes, and the floor moves. Until the door opens again, you have a few moments to persuade. How do you do it?

I am describing an “elevator speech”. It comes from sales but I’ve encountered it in my religious community (Unitarian Universalists, if you’re new here). We’re an unusual faith. People don’t generally know what we are because we don’t have a creed like most religions. There’s a nearly 20 year-old Colbert Report clip showing this confusion. How can you have a religion without a statement of what is “true”?

As the metaphoric doors close, let me tell you this: Religion is about our connection to the world and everything in it: the people, the planet, ideas, our mortality, and beyond that. Unitarian Universalism grounds me in an understanding that I belong in all of this. It helps me remember that it’s an interconnected web, and what I do while I am alive matters. Historically it’s a faith that’s understood if there’s a God, it’s probably a unitary force. Our fate after death is likely shared. The search for theological truth is the responsibility of every person and it’s OK if we settle on different understandings. There are good ideas in all religions though it’s not likely that any one is the “truth”. Learn from them all. Science is a legitimate way of knowing. And I show up on Sunday to a warm, compassionate community that affirms the dignity of everyone, and that keeps me going in the heart-wrenching work of human services.

The doors have opened and I’ve left out so much. I didn’t tell you how the church community I am part of centers beauty as a key facet of our gatherings. That I listen to gorgeous music, moving poetry, and inspiring sermons while I’m in a a stunning English gothic building letting sunlight through stained glass. The world is ugly, but Sunday reminds me that it’s not just that. I didn’t tell you about the people I embrace. I didn’t tell you how caring everyone is towards my children. That my church is my most robust source of a 21st century elusive: a sense of community. That I leave on Sundays with a reminder to be better than I would if left to my own ideas.

Most religions ask you to choose to believe a specific something that cannot be proven. Unitarian Universalism does not. It affirms focusing on the thing we do know: we are alive. Those around us are alive. The world is alive. My faith reminds me that we need each other, that we belong to each other, and how we are with each other matters.

If our existential fate is shared, showing up on Sundays to a pew won’t save you from it. I worry less about death and instead focus on this beautiful, blessed, limited state of being alive. My faith keeps me from being completely crushed by the world. I found Unitarian Universalism when I was 22 and it’s been 16 years of a blessing for me.