on the search for a third space

I was reading a while back about the idea of the "third space." Interesting idea. The idea is presented that most people have three distinct places in their lives, distinct arenas, or stages where the drama of life unfolds. The first two are obvious, home and work. The interesting thing to me is the idea of the third space. In this final space, people, the theory goes, search for a place of belonging, a place to relax, to spend leisure time, to give their down time a context or meaning.

Third spaces are everywhere, diners, bars, coffee shops, book stores...the list goes on as endlessly as there are creative people who find places to belong. People need these kind of spaces, away from home and work where "everybody knows your name..." There is something about this sense of belonging that really drives people to be a regular at the corner diner or the neighborhood pub.

In many ways, the church is a third space. The church is a place away from home and work where people find a place to belong and gives context and meaning to life. Interestingly, the church is the only place that, should, attempt to dump those people back out into the wilderness of life to engage people in their own third spaces. In that sense, the church is really more of a 2.5 space, as it exists as a hospitable place of welcome and belonging, but so that each one might better live outside of the space itself. This is different than the coffee shop or pub. Those spaces equip you to stay inside and do nothing about life outside the space itself. The church challenges Christians to live well in other people's third spaces.

As a pastor, the challenge for me is that church is not only my place of belonging but also my place of employment. The past 2.5 months have been a search for another space, coffee shop, diner, library, some place that I might be a regular, so as to intersect lives with other people. The search has been frustrating so far, although that is probably due more to unreasonable ideals than anything else. But it feels to me like this is an important step for me. I need to find a place, not because I lack a sense of belonging, but because the gospel calls me to live well in other people's third spaces...the search continues.

an examined life: on asking questions

Lately, I have been wondering whether or not I am good question asker. I am afraid of being someone who lives life with their head stuck in the sand, hoping problems will pass by without my knowing. There are many days when I feel numb to the hard questions that life poses or at least would pose if I would allow it to. It is, to me, troubling to be naive or unthoughtful. I don't want to follow Jesus unthinkingly (I'm not sure that is a word, but you get the point).

The reason is that an unexamined life seems to me to be an indefensible life. How can I answer questions posed to me by others if I have not thought about them on my own? How can I give reasons for anything; my values, convictions, opinions, my hopes, dreams etc. unless I have taken time to really consider them myself? If I am challenged on a particular piece of my worldview, how am I to respond unless I have taken time to examine my life, or made an effort to be a thoughtful follower of Jesus?

In my opinion, the answer is, I can't. Unexamined lives rely on pithy statements or cliches to get them through life's questions. Even if the statements and cliches are in some sense true, the truth of it is probably lost in my casual casting of it.

The challenge for me is the fear of what I will find. If I really start to grapple with life's hard questions, or the difficulties and obstacles to faith; what will I find? For me, the temptation to live a numb, unexamined life is fueled by a combination of a desire to be comfortable (that is probably code for lazy, I'll get back to you on that) and this fear or apprehension of what I will find if I explore these questions deeply. I have seen far too many people abandon principle at the hand of intellectual exploration, and so part of me is probably afraid of where I will find myself if I start to ask good questions.

I don't, however, think this releases me from this challenge of examining my life (by that I, of course, mean everything about my life). If I really trust that God is the God of the universe then he is probably unfazed by my feeble attempts at understanding. I am probably not going to stump him. If he promises to walk with us through the valley of the shadow of death, then he will probably walk with me through the valley of my curiosity too.

I have also learned that I have to have a healthy distrust of myself in this process as well. What I mean is, my logic has often proved illogical and my feelings have often betrayed reality. So, in that, it is entirely possible that answers to my curiosities lie outside the bounds of my oft stunted logic and regularly manic emotions. At the same time, those are the best discerning tools I have on my own. I guess faith is, in some way, the intersection of where my reasoning faculties end and the Spirit's voice begins. Perhaps that is what it looks like to lean on something other than my own understanding alone.

I think God would honor and welcome the earnest pursuit of knowing Him like that, I just hope I have the courage to ask about it sometime...