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The Third Space
Brian Mashburn
August 22, 2010
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Get Out of My Space?
I admit it…I’m a “hugger”. I’ll hug just about anyone or anything, with very few exceptions. However, there are people that “just aren’t huggers”. In my opinion, there is nothing inherently wrong with that. Unhealthy, maybe. Sad, perhaps. But not wrong.
Some of the most committed non-huggers have developed a 6th sense, a sort of “hugger-radar”. They can spot a hugger and have developed strategies to ward off an impending invasion of their space. Anything from “taking another route” to “the stiff-arm handshake” can be effective defense mechanisms. Some folks take a more proactive approach and aggressively initiate “the back-slap greeting” in order to make it awkward for the hugger to then initiate the hug. I recommend the fast moving “drive-by finger-point greeting” against those particularly persistent huggers who you learn can’t take a hint.
We all (huggers included) want our space. And not just physically.
Jesus was all about getting into people’s space. But, unlike some huggers, he never forced himself into it. He offered himself, but he always waited to be invited in. “Here I am! I stand at the door and knock,” he said. “If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me.” (Rev 3:20)
This teaches us a most important lesson. If we want to make a God-honest difference in the spiritual states of our fellow men, we must stand at the door of people’s hearts and knock. We must offer ourselves to people, making it obvious that “here we are,” willing to be with them in the deeper waters of the human spirit. But we do not force ourselves on them. We must wait and allow them to open the door. Only then do we get to “eat with” them (that is, have a relationship with them that makes a disciple making difference).
Today we will look at Paul’s least noted missionary journey. It’s his most important one, too, and it is the only one that modern day disciples of Christ must follow if they want to be useful in giving life to others.
In it, Paul didn’t travel to Corinth or Thessalonica or Ephesus or any other physical space. No, in this journey, he traveled to the door of people’s hearts, knocked, and waited to be invited in.
And he was invited in. And he changed the world as a result.
Are you being invited in to people’s “space” where you can make a difference for Christ? You can be. Let’s learn how together.