The air conditioning went out on my car Tuesday afternoon. Since the outside temperatures were in the mid-90s, I felt fortunate that I was only about 90 miles from my destination.
Because I am currently a one-car family (Jan has her car in Colorado where she is engaged in grandmothering chores for our new granddaughter) and I need my car every day, I have not yet gotten it fixed.
Since I now drive with the car windows down, I hear the birds in the early morning drive through the countryside to my office. I smell the new-mown hay. I also smell the “road kill”–and the “stink gas” from the oil and gas exploration sites. I hear children laughing and playing when I drive by the park. I feel the coolness of the breeze in the early morning, In the afternoon I remember the in-car “sauna” from childhood days before many cars had air conditioning.
All of this has caused me to think again about an important lesson. Most of the time, I drive with the air conditioning on and the windows up. I am in the world in one sense, but not really in the world. In the midst of a stimulating and varied world, I remain secluded with my air conditioning and radio. Now that I am forced to operate (at least temporarily) without air conditioning, I have a renewed sense of being in the world.
I am reminded that two options are before us as Christians. #1–We can be in the world and not of the world, living our lives in total isolation in our own little worlds, little touched and touching little. #2–We can be in the world and not of the world, smelling and hearing and touching the world, feeling the hurts and struggles, and caring about the people around us. God is calling us to #2. Isolationism is not the Christian way.