I Stepped Outside

Seven days, two hours. My phone tracked my location for the past week, and it recorded the astonishing truth that I didn’t set foot outside my own yard for seven full days and two hours. I don’t really know if that’s ever happened in my adult life, but this week I did it. When the ice and snow started, I isolated myself so well that by the time I was forced to emerge again, I didn’t really even have any interest in seeing what was outside the walls of my house.

I’m good at isolating. If I have food that I enjoy and children to hang with and a husband to sit on the couch beside, I could pretty well be happy for who knows how long? In fact, the thought of buying some property someplace and ignoring the news cycle and not dealing with the world in general is pretty darn appealing to me.

I don’t think I’m the only one. Life is simpler when you don’t have to think about others’ issues so much. When you can just focus on yourself and your immediate people and surroundings, it’s easy to feel in control, to filter out the negativity and the disappointing way that this world keeps shaking its fist at God. As Christians, I think sometimes we can really be tempted to check out, to be only minimally involved in others’ lives, to live on the far margins of what God has called us to do. I won’t lie: it’s easier. Life is messy, and being involved in other people’s lives gets complicated. 

But one thing I remembered this week is what a true blessing it is to be obligated to people, to be accountable to people, to be part of the church and its work in the world. It’s awesome to get to play a role in the plans that God has for this era in human history, even when things are messy and unpredictable and tiring. He didn’t call us to sit on the couch! 

And, please hear me, if you are in a season of couch sitting because of health problems or because you’re a caretaker and are limited in your ability to leave your house, or if you are elderly and are not able to go and do like you used to, that doesn’t mean that you don’t have a role in the outside world. My friend Carolyn Strader recently passed away. Her physical world grew smaller and smaller as she aged, but her spiritual influence only flourished. That dear woman prayed for my family multiple times every day. She wrote notes of encouragement and called those she felt needed to be spurred on to continued good works. She never allowed herself to become isolated, because she maintained her heart connections with her fellow Christians and never stopped sharing the goodness of Christ with every doctor, nurse, and nursing home attendant that she came in contact with. 

Jesus called us to tell the world about Him, and we all have unique opportunities to do that. We have precious relationships within the church that require nurturing. We need to be together if we’re physically able, and we need to engage with this world even if we aren’t physically able. Isolation is not the way to take the gospel into the world, nor is it the way to become more like Jesus. He told us to be in the world, not withdraw from it. 

I know it’s appealing sometimes, thinking about burying our heads in the sand, distancing ourselves from others’ pain and imperfections and the neverending frustrations of living in a fallen world. But Jesus offers something better than isolation–He offers us a life filled with meaning that is purposefully intertwined with believers, encouragers, best friends, skeptics, malcontents, grouches, and enemies of God. And He gives us all we need to know in order to live peaceably, with love, with joy in such a world.

When I finally stepped outside after seven days and two hours, I remembered that there’s something even sweeter than the peace and love and provision inside my home, and that’s the call of Christ. He asks more of me than self-preservation. His abundance includes experiences so much more formative than ease, things that I will only encounter when I live in the world. This is how He tunes my heart and gives me eyes to see the holy ground right outside my door.