By today’s North American standards I grew up in an unusually large family. I was the seventh born out of nine children. We lived in a three bedroom house with one bathroom. All five of us boys were placed in one room with two beds, the three smaller boys were in one double bed and the older two in the other.

One memory I have is somehow being disturbed in the middle of the night - probably one of my siblings rolling over - and I remember looking out from under the covers and seeing a ghost. That is what it seemed like to me and I could not conceive another way to explain this perception. I got back under the covers and woke my other two brothers and had them confirm my suspicions. They peeked out from under the covers and affirmed seeing the same scary image. At this point we were still being quietly afraid while the two in the other bed stayed fast asleep. As time went on and more nervous peeking occurred clarity came to the situation. On one side of the room was a ‘record player’ that during the daytime would emit the familiar sounds in those days of Johnny Cash, Elvis Presley, Johnny Horton and Fat Albert. Near the record player was a lamp. One of my older brothers had come home and in the dark of night and thrown his white shirt over the lamp, which illuminated itself eerily when the moonlight landed upon it. This looked very much like a ghost to my bedfellows as well as myself.

Thinking back on this today I see a metaphor. There is the sense of safety that exists under the covers. It is a limited reality, to be sure, but it gives oneself that restful peace which is universally desired by all. All things within that space are definable and understandable. To leave the shelter requires an expanded worldview. This mental picture is like the Christian bubble that some see themselves in today. Many would like their reality to be that restful undisturbed safe place, a place like they imagine their Christian world to be. For some the experience beyond the Christian bubble is to be avoided at all costs. Some even seem to feel that God is not with them if they wander outside the bubble. Staying in the bubble, however, is ill-advised.

Let me give a tangible example of this: A young man, raised in a pastor’s family, raised in the church, leaves home and gets a job in the ‘real world’. This young man once secure within the ‘bubble’ hears the coarse language and expressions of the workplace and wrestles with the adjustment. In the stress of the experience his boss notices his tense appearance and calls him into the office. In the office the boss lays down a number of condoms and a phone number and tells this young man to take a break and learn relax.

So is that story fiction or reality? It is both with a few adjustments in either direction. It is a similar story for many entering the real world. Some would think that the answer is to retreat back to that safe place where tangible distances explain all experiences and perceptions. For Jesus to make a difference, however, we desperately need to help our young people live in the real world, showing forth Jesus where people are far from Him.

There is a real world outside the bubble and God is in it. The Scripture tells us ‘perfect love casts out fear.’ When we recoil into our own space, then fear takes over making it hard to love the world outside the bubble.

I’ve lived in the bubble before and face the temptation from time to time to return into it, pulling the covers back up and locking out the real world. Sure we need to be careful not to be ‘of the world’, but we are to be ‘in the world’. If Jesus had remained in one safe hidden place we would not have the stories of the healings and the changed lives of those who would encounter Him outside the bubble. Playing it safe is not a command of Jesus, but to love our neighbour is.

Now that I’ve wiggled a bit and have my nose out where I can breath, perhaps I should open my eyes.