Within the Bubble

There was a time when I was a zealot. My zealously came out when I was riding up and down a freight elevator at the JC Penny store that I worked at in Richmond, California so many years ago.

It was normal behavior, or so I though. I had come across a truth that totally transformed my thinking and my lifestyle. A truth that gave me peace of mind and a sense of security I had long been seeking.

But it turned me into somewhat of a freak.

Some glory in being a "Jesus Freak." To my shame, I think my freakishness only drove people away from the good news of the gospel that I was attempting to proclaim. My attempt to be John the Bapistish was against who I was in real life and it caused more disgust with my workmates and friends than anything else.

My freakish behavior was all verbal driven. I thought I that I had to say all the right sounding religious words to win people into the kingdom. If I sounded holy, looked holy by breaking out my big bible at the lunchroom table and did my best to buttonhole my fellow workers.

It didn't work.

This is one big regret I have: all the people in my life that I have alienated with my presentation of the gospel. Hear me out, I know that the Lord has come to divide and all that. But sometimes our demeanor as followers of Him is more distracting and destroying than necessary.

I was reading this week how we as Christians move from these phases of losing contact with the world all together and move within the bubble. In that bubble is a "sanctified sub culture" - we have our own music, books, trinkets and the rest - that basically separate us from the world.

And immobilize our cause.

Jesus didn't call us to leave the world. He didn't call us to get into our holy huddles or holy bubble clusters, roll up our sleeves and point out all the dirt in the world.

I went into the bubble, I learned the lingo, I sang the songs, I looked the part.

It was a few years ago that the bubble popped. I think it happened when I started to be working with at risk kids at camp. Then when my family moved to open up a totally new ministry for the organization, I found out how really protected I had been.

I started to venture down the streets of "divine hospitality" and the "ministry of presence" and found out that most of those things are foreign concepts to those that are living within the bubble.

I was criticized because of the lack of big bibles and scriptures plastered all of the place. That to let Muslims and the gays and the Mormons in was a sin, simply put. Things didn't look religious enough for those living in the bubble.

The bubble burst when I started to deal with "Christian Celebrities" who had their own contract riders and weird requests. When I paid lots of money to guest preachers who preached no better than myself, locked themselves in their private rooms and wouldn't mingle. When more and more fiction books appeared in the Christian book stores, and every Christian "worship" song sounded like the other one - 7 words repeated 11 times.

Here is the prayer of Jesus I seem to be drawn to more and more:

"My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them fro the evil one." John 17:15

I currently work in a protected place and live in a gated community. I am surrounded by like minded and level headed people. Heck, they even dress like me. Its all good because I am doing lots of things I need to do and God is restoring me and preparing me for the future.

I have to be intentional to get out of the bubble. I do that through my children's activities. I have met more non Christians that way. I have had more talks about Jesus Christ with actors, stage and film tech, band moms and dads outside of the bubble. Why? Because I put myself in a place where they are. I drift out of the boundaries.

I want to be a zealot again. This time, I want to do it right. I will do it right by being more loving. I will do it by being direct with the message of hope but do it in a way that reflects more salt and substance than my religious bigotry.

A song from Pink Floyd entitled, "Comfortably Numb" often drifts up in my head and I think - am I that way now? Am I content to just hang out with my Christian friends and become more complacent on my way to Zion?

Is it more about WWJD - (What would Jesus Do?) rather than WWJB (where would Jesus be?)?

I want more WWJB in my life.

And I need to get out of the bubble.