Bubble

A conversation I had this morning brought to mind this “other” meaning for the word bubble. This is not the lovely, airy bit of nothing that I recommend you blow from time to time just because you need to feel good. No. I’m thinking about how easy it is for us to live in a bubble these days—and how important it is to get ourselves out of there, should it happen.

Despite a world that gets smaller and smaller and every community becoming more and more diverse, some of us react by retreating into a bubble. By this I mean that we surround ourselves with people just like us who think exactly as we do and we put up a wall that keeps out anything that might disturb our personal peace.

I do understand why many people really prefer to “live in a bubble.” My morning newscast is full of tragedy, both local and global. Some days I am one of those people who choose just not to listen. But I do get troubled when more and more of the folks around me have no idea what’s going on in the world and whose response to every conversation is “I never listen to the news.”

This becomes even easier as we choose which of our friends to pay attention to on facebook, or narrow our news sources to only those we’re sure to agree with.

My concern today is that one of the critical Mission Initiatives we’ve signed up for is “Pursue peace on earth.” Seems to me that if I’m to pursue Christ’s mission of justice and peace, I need to engage in some effort to know what the issues are. How will I contribute to causes of justice if I never allow myself to hear the stories of need, or to understand how this or that solution might help?

During the next several months we’re going to be invited into a conversation that will culminate in a national conference. Between now and June 2012 there will be opportunities to be a part of a process to engage as many of us as possible in discerning the direction for the years to come. It’s going to be a conversation about compassion and justice; and it’s not going to be easy.

I’m sorry to report that I’ve heard far too many folks who’ve elected (so far) to remain in the bubble on this topic. They think they’ve said and heard all they’re willing to say and hear and they intend to just remain on the sidelines until it’s all over. Please don’t be one of those bubble folk.

There are many exciting things that can and will come from this national conference experience. Not least of them will be a kind of “test run” to engage Canadians in more of these nation-wide conversations about issues and questions of special concern to us in this country. Can we, as Canadian members of Community of Christ contribute a perspective for the global church? We’ll never know if we allow ourselves to remain in our bubbles.

Posted by Marion