Pop That Bubble

I live in a bubble.

It's a nice bubble, don't get me wrong. It's in a great bubble neighborhood, and it has all the things one would want from this particular type of accommodation. Safety, security, a lack of desire to look at the world around me, a wet bar, you know, all those things a bubble really needs. I've found recently, though, that I'm becoming less and less comfortable in here. You see, the issue with bubbles is that they tend to be clear, so no matter how hard you try not to, every now and then you end up taking sidelong glances at the world outside. With each of those looks comes a pesky desire to go out and do something in that often-terrifying outside world.

I think we all have bubbles like this, especially Christians. The walls of these bubbles, rather than being made of soap, are made of people (not unlike Soylent Green). We enjoy surrounding ourselves with those who make us feel safe, who make us feel as though our ideas are accepted, our opinions appreciated.

If these were normal bubbles we were working with here, this wouldn't be such a bad thing. However, we, through years of training, have learned how to construct super bubbles, near impenetrable yet often invisible barriers which separate us from the oh-so-scary world outside. We can still see the world, and thus claim to interact with it, but we really have very little to do with what goes on outside our sphere of exclusivity.

For Christians, these bubbles can prove to be particularly dangerous. How so, one might be wondering. They're making the environment in which we live disgusting.

Think of what happens when you close off a room from the outside world. You shut all the windows, close the doors, shut off any ventilation, and just let the room be. After a while, the air becomes stale, a stench invades the place, a heavy, uncomfortable heat fills the room. Yet we don't notice any of this. If we stay in that room, the changes are completely unknown to us. The effects are compounded even more when you cram a bunch of people into the space. The more people, the faster this stagnation occurs.

Now think of what it is like to walk into a room like this. We're shocked by all of these offensive things hitting us at once, and wonder how anyone could stand being in a place which has become so revolting. This is the image that I think a lot of people get when they enter into the social circle of Christians who have long ago closed themselves off from the rest of the world. Quite frankly, it's repulsive.

God has been talking to me a lot lately about this bubble, how dangerous it is, how though it is good for us to be in community, it is so easy to stagnate as we sit in our little groups, ceaselessly encouraging each other and forgetting that we are called, that I am called, to go and love a world (and as the wisdom of DC Talk teaches us, "love is a verb").

So I've been trying to be more faithful in this way. At first it's scary, sure, but along with that twinge of fear comes something that I can only describe as a refreshing of my very soul. To go back to the room, I've found that I've finally been compelled to go and open up the door. As soon as I did, a wave of fresh air crashed into me, surprising but welcome. Sure, there are plenty of scary things waiting beyond the confines of my happy little bubble. The Truth, however, is that I'm wasting my time if I've got a gift which has the ability to change this world for the better and bring healing and restoration we could never fully comprehend and I simply sit in a room and stare at it.

Community is an amazing gift, and I would never seek to undermine that fact. Another fact which we have to realize, though, is that we as humans are all too willing to sit in our own filth, content with the comfort which we have found, as our lives become less and less attractive to those who don't share our worldview. So as I encourage myself, I encourage each of you, get outside of that bubble. Go and be the love that is supposed to be invading this world. As you do, watch as your life is renewed in a way you never thought possible. Rediscover the purpose behind why God did what He did on the cross.

With His love and hopefully His grace,

Taylor