A few days ago, I was interviewed by a student on the topic of boundaries. Although I was happy to do it, I warned him I had not read books on boundaries. No doubt, I have experienced boundaries in my life---as has everyone. I may have thought about boundaries in that experience, but the thinking was not really deliberate or explicit. I am not sure what prompted the interview, but it is easy to guess the college student needed to think about it and perhaps do a little better with boundaries in his life.
For me the interview was simply a time to explore an interesting idea. As I engaged this thought process, the first thing that came to mind was how boundaries separate. That is self-evident, but it is very significant. In separating, boundaries create the “other.” The other may be a different country, a different people, almost anything that can be separated. In our current time, boundaries are very much in the news. For example, we have a boundary that separates Mexico and one that separates us from Canada. These are literal boundaries.
In some cases, these boundaries are obvious---a river separates us from “them.” In other cases, it seems fairly arbitrary. For example, there are stretches of land separating us from Canada where it is not obvious. Why this particular spot of the land, we can fairly ask? Of course, we can build a fence or something like this. This is exactly what we did to separate our family farm from the one next to it. There was a fence. Cross the fence and you were on the other guy’s property.
We experience other kinds of boundaries. Race and gender are two more obvious ones. Race seems really easy. There are different colors. But soon, we realize how complicated it can become. A young girl may be the offspring of a Caucasian and African-American. Now which race is she? Of course, we can pass rules to try to determine that, but honestly it is a perilous journey to demarcate along these lines.
There are many more invisible boundaries. Things like money, education, etc. can be invisible separators. Sometimes, speech or clothes might suggest some things about money and education, but it is not as obvious as a line on the ground. It gets even more complicated inside institutions where certain folks hit a “glass ceiling.” Of course, there is not a literal glass ceiling, but tell that to an equally qualified woman, who consistently is passed over for a raise or promotion. Sadly, some folks can’t believe there is a ceiling like this, because they don’t see it.
Having thought about boundaries in this fashion, raises the question, so what? I would like to deal with the “so what” from a spiritual perspective. That means I would like to factor God and the Spirit into the equation in answering so what. Even to anticipate dragging God into the equation can make many folks cautious or feel the first pangs of defensiveness.
I’ll begin with an easy example. I grew up very close to the Indiana-Ohio boundary. In the blink of an eye, I could be in another state. The “line” was simply a sign on the road: “Welcome to Ohio.” It was the same road and everything. Literally, nothing was different, but somehow I was in Ohio. It seemed arbitrary. Certainly, at some time some folks made the decision. We are going to have two states and here is the boundary. Choose the west part and you are a Hoosier! And so I was. For me it was mostly a non-issue and actually pretty funny. I could do a long run and go to another state. In this case, I am not sure God cared at all.
I want to use the immigration issue as an example of a much more invested issue. Real lives are at stake. Mexico and the rest of Central America has been the hot political issue for some time. It seems odd to say, but it is really about a boundary. If you live north of the boundary, you are American. You don’t belong to us. You don’t speak our language. But wait a minute. There are plenty of Americans who natively speak Spanish and they are one of us. The complexity of the issue becomes apparent. Perhaps it is not really about a river or a line in the land. That is simply the “boundary.”
To drag God back into the picture says to me God surely cares about Americans. But I am sure God also cares about Mexicans and all the other folks. What if my primary identification were not national, but human and spiritual? Seen this way, boundaries could disappear. We surely think boundaries are important (and I will argue in another piece they are), but spiritually we need to be careful in deciding which ones are important and which ones mostly serve our self-interest.
I am not against self-interest; we all have self-interests---and appropriately. But sometimes self-interest becomes selfishness. Spiritually, that becomes a problem. To be selfish flies in the face of what God created us to be and to do. I take seriously those passages that talk about giving a second piece of clothing or going the second mile. I am convinced God really meant it when we were asked to love our neighbor.
Sometimes the neighbor is right across the state line. Sometimes the neighbor is right across the river and may be pretty different than me. I think God wants us to deal with the boundary issue from the perspective of love.
For me the interview was simply a time to explore an interesting idea. As I engaged this thought process, the first thing that came to mind was how boundaries separate. That is self-evident, but it is very significant. In separating, boundaries create the “other.” The other may be a different country, a different people, almost anything that can be separated. In our current time, boundaries are very much in the news. For example, we have a boundary that separates Mexico and one that separates us from Canada. These are literal boundaries.
In some cases, these boundaries are obvious---a river separates us from “them.” In other cases, it seems fairly arbitrary. For example, there are stretches of land separating us from Canada where it is not obvious. Why this particular spot of the land, we can fairly ask? Of course, we can build a fence or something like this. This is exactly what we did to separate our family farm from the one next to it. There was a fence. Cross the fence and you were on the other guy’s property.
We experience other kinds of boundaries. Race and gender are two more obvious ones. Race seems really easy. There are different colors. But soon, we realize how complicated it can become. A young girl may be the offspring of a Caucasian and African-American. Now which race is she? Of course, we can pass rules to try to determine that, but honestly it is a perilous journey to demarcate along these lines.
There are many more invisible boundaries. Things like money, education, etc. can be invisible separators. Sometimes, speech or clothes might suggest some things about money and education, but it is not as obvious as a line on the ground. It gets even more complicated inside institutions where certain folks hit a “glass ceiling.” Of course, there is not a literal glass ceiling, but tell that to an equally qualified woman, who consistently is passed over for a raise or promotion. Sadly, some folks can’t believe there is a ceiling like this, because they don’t see it.
Having thought about boundaries in this fashion, raises the question, so what? I would like to deal with the “so what” from a spiritual perspective. That means I would like to factor God and the Spirit into the equation in answering so what. Even to anticipate dragging God into the equation can make many folks cautious or feel the first pangs of defensiveness.
I’ll begin with an easy example. I grew up very close to the Indiana-Ohio boundary. In the blink of an eye, I could be in another state. The “line” was simply a sign on the road: “Welcome to Ohio.” It was the same road and everything. Literally, nothing was different, but somehow I was in Ohio. It seemed arbitrary. Certainly, at some time some folks made the decision. We are going to have two states and here is the boundary. Choose the west part and you are a Hoosier! And so I was. For me it was mostly a non-issue and actually pretty funny. I could do a long run and go to another state. In this case, I am not sure God cared at all.
I want to use the immigration issue as an example of a much more invested issue. Real lives are at stake. Mexico and the rest of Central America has been the hot political issue for some time. It seems odd to say, but it is really about a boundary. If you live north of the boundary, you are American. You don’t belong to us. You don’t speak our language. But wait a minute. There are plenty of Americans who natively speak Spanish and they are one of us. The complexity of the issue becomes apparent. Perhaps it is not really about a river or a line in the land. That is simply the “boundary.”
To drag God back into the picture says to me God surely cares about Americans. But I am sure God also cares about Mexicans and all the other folks. What if my primary identification were not national, but human and spiritual? Seen this way, boundaries could disappear. We surely think boundaries are important (and I will argue in another piece they are), but spiritually we need to be careful in deciding which ones are important and which ones mostly serve our self-interest.
I am not against self-interest; we all have self-interests---and appropriately. But sometimes self-interest becomes selfishness. Spiritually, that becomes a problem. To be selfish flies in the face of what God created us to be and to do. I take seriously those passages that talk about giving a second piece of clothing or going the second mile. I am convinced God really meant it when we were asked to love our neighbor.
Sometimes the neighbor is right across the state line. Sometimes the neighbor is right across the river and may be pretty different than me. I think God wants us to deal with the boundary issue from the perspective of love.
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