Out of the Bubble

This past weekend I had the opportunity to travel to Omaha, NE for the Joint Annual Meeting (JAM) of the Iowa, Nebraska, and South Dakota Tri-Conference. It was a weekend filled with connection, worship, business meetings for each conference, and workshops to equip churches, laity, and clergy. It also held an opportunity to hear a keynote address from the General Minister and President of the national United Church of Christ, the Rev. Dr. Karen Georgia A. Thompson. 

If you Google Karen Georgia (that is her full first name), you will find out quickly that–amongst other things–she is a poet and published author. During her keynote address she shared these pieces of herself in 5 movements–each one beginning with her poem. I cannot tell you the title or the content of her poems–I wasn’t taking notes except mentally. But what I can tell you is that our General Minister and President cannot only write meaningful poetry, she can also deliver a poem in ways that move a soul.

What I do remember is something Rev. Dr. Thompson said during the Q & A portion of the keynote. When asked what is one thing she would say to the churches of the UCC at this time in history, Karen Georgia answered with a story about traveling with a group overseas, and the way in which she saw transformation for one individual she was traveling with happen before her very eyes. Karen Georgia concluded her story by saying that transformation is real, and many times it requires us to do only one thing: “get out of our bubble.” Those words continue to rattle around my synapses.

For myriad reasons, many of us cannot simply decide to travel overseas, and even if we could, there’s no guarantee that we would allow ourselves to get outside of our bubbles once we arrive. Sure, the landscape may be different, but generally, the bubble each of us works so hard to create would likely be the same–our ideas, our commitments, our viewpoints, our experiences–all holding us in these delicate orbs of our own making. Which leads me to believe that if we want to get out of our bubble, we’re going to need to do more than just change our scenery.

Because the truth is, no matter where we go, there we are. We bring our bubbles with us–yes, even through TSA security checkpoints–and we tend to view even the newest of landscapes with our same old eyes, through the membranes of our same old bubbles, through the lenses of our same old ideas, commitments, viewpoints, and experiences. To get out of our bubbles will require more than just a new address–no matter how brief–it will require the removal of the bubble itself.

The thing about bubbles is that they only stretch so far before they burst–their walls and boundaries failing completely–their remnants falling to the floor. In fact, from inside our bubbles one need only to outstretch their arms in order to stretch the membranes so far beyond their limits that the bubble ruptures and is no more. No matter the place, no matter the time–this remains true: The walls of our self-containment cannot contain us forever…but we must stretch out our arms.

This looks different for each of us. Sometimes this looks like traveling to a new country and really allowing ourselves to be absorbed by the people and the culture of this new place. Other times it looks like a willingness to eat food that is NOTHING like we would normally eat. Sometimes it’s taking the opportunity to read and study about something we know very little about. Still other times, it looks like listening to all perspectives before rendering a verdict, actually forming a relationship with someone in a community served by a ministry or mission we’re a part of, or staying in on a Friday night when it seems like “everybody” is out. We stretch out our arms, opening ourselves to all that might be in any given situation with any given person or group of people, and in that stretching and opening–our bubbles burst–they have to. And when they burst, transformation happens.

So this week, friends, I wonder if we might listen to the wisdom of Rev. Dr. Karen Georgia Thompson and get out of the bubble–whatever the bubble is for each of us? Maybe we can all sign on to do one thing that opens us up–that helps us stretch beyond what we’ve always done and what we’ve always eaten, who we’ve always talked to, and what we’ve always believed. And maybe, just maybe, a few of us might even stretch ourselves enough to burst that thin film that has stood for far too long between us and change–between us and transformation.

Transformed people transform people. And people who have been transformed transform the world.

Getting out of the bubble with you,
Pr. Melissa

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