my space

[postlude: April 18, 2006]

Recently, I received an “information” letter from my 6-year-old daughter’s school concerning myspace.com. It was a very informative letter and maybe I’m a little twisted, but I found the letter very humorous. Not because there was anything actually funny about the letter itself, but there was something funny about me (the parent and an ordained pastor) reading the letter while I’m adding a friend to MY myspace.com account.

Life is a sitcom sometimes, isn’t it?

As “personal space” was to the 1990’s, so is myspace.com for this decade of the new millennium. Sort of…

MY space is just that: it’s MY space. If YOU want to be part of MY space (better said my little, online kingdom), then you have to issue an “add to friends” request in order to be MY friend on MY space. It’s an incredible sense of control and power…if you have a myspace account, then you know exactly what I’m saying.

Admittedly, I’ve searched for many musical artists and long-lost friends to see if they have myspace accounts, but I have yet to search to see if God has a myspace account. Just the thought of it, without doing any research, got me thinking: what if God sent me an “add to friends” request? Would I approve or deny the request?

Bottom line, am I inviting God into MY space? More so, in my life and in your life, are there times when God’s space and MY space meet or overlap?

Before we go any further, let me stress that this is not a ‘pot calling the kettle black’ conversation, I have a myspace.com page and I check it just about every day, so my thoughts come from curiosity rather than condemnation. So, in the words of N.T. Wright: “I invite you (this week) to take the risk of thinking new thoughts in order that you may understand the old ones better.” *

What really happens when we approve an “add to friends” request”? In my mind, we’re not only allowing them into our space – whether that be adding a friend or networking with someone – we are allowing them into our little kingdom. It’s a power play and it’s about control. That might not be something we are willing to admit, but once we strip away all of our ‘good’ intentions, that is what it’s really all about. Not only can we control who people think we are, but we can control who our friends are and every aspect of how they interact with us. It’s an online utopia. It’s the ‘best-case’ scenario of having friends and community - no complications and totally at a distance. Who wouldn’t want that? However, this utopia or little kingdom we have control over is bitter sweet because for you and I the very thing that is attractive to us is often times the very illusion that distracts us from real beauty – real beauty being truth.

Let’s break this down a bit. First, my space and your space – our space – is the earth. Second, God’s space is in heaven. Throughout our Judeo-Christian history, God’s intent has been for our space and his space to connect and overlap. “Abraham keeps meeting God. Jacob sees a ladder between heaven and earth, with angels going to and fro. Moses discovers that he’s standing on holy ground – a place, in other words, where (for the moment at least) heaven and earth intersect – as he watched the burning bush.”**

More specifically, we can learn about God’s desire to dwell or to be added into our space in the book of Exodus. It is called “the Tent of Meeting”. It was a portable sanctuary or shrine where God would dwell with his people (the Israelites). It was God’s space intersecting with our space – heaven and earth coming together and overlapping. “The main focus of ancient Israelite belief in the overlap of heaven and earth was the Temple of Jerusalem.”** So whether it was “the Tent of Meeting” or the Temple of Jerusalem in the Old Testament, the question we must embrace in our new covenant (or friendship) with God is “don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in your midst?” (1Corinthians 3:16 TNIV)

Because of Jesus and His Spirit, WE are “the Tent of Meeting” or the temple. WE are the place where God’s space and our space meet – the place where heaven meets earth – or in the words of Jesus, “The kingdom of God has come near to you.” (Luke 10:9 TNIV)

Jesus and His Spirit is (has been and will be forever) God’s “add to friends” request for your space, my space – our space. Our ‘new life’ begins when we embrace this with our entire being. When we allow The Kingdom Life to overtake (not just overlap) our little kingdoms in life, we begin to love intimacy rather than loving distance and we will find ourselves naturally drawn toward and attracted to real beauty – truth.

So the question isn’t really “is myspace.com bad?” It’s deeper than that. Our love for myspace.com is just a cultural reflection of a deeper spiritual need. It is our need to begin living and embracing who God has been continually calling His sons and daughters to be – the place where God’s space and our space meet, the place where heaven meets earth – His Kingdom here on earth. As with myspace.com, you and I have the choice to “approve” or “deny” God’s “add to friends” request – see you online!

reference notes:
*a quote from N.T. Wright’s message “Jesus and the Kingdom”
**from the book “Simply Christian” by N.T. Wright

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Oh..just in case – there is no myspace.com/god account. Don't get any ideas...