Wednesdays in the World - My Space is better than Your Space

Okay, Wednesday again... that means we look around the world and find.....

My Space got more web traffic than Yahoo. Seriously. Read it on CNN.

My Space, for those who have lives, is this online "community" where users set up web pages and post thoughts and pictures. It sounds a lot like a blog, but the difference is that you have "friends" on My Space. And from what I gather (I'm not a big my-spacer, so forgive my inaccuracies here), you have to be someone's friend to do certain things on people's pages, and there is some sort of status to be had in having a bunch of friends.

I'm thinking to myself, "Why would anyone want to spend all their time doing that?" But here we go, apparently last month they did it 38.7 BILLION times. That's like everyone in the world looking at My Space 2 times a week. Church doesn't barely happen 2 times a week for a small portion of the planet that claims Christ as their Lord.

And that's when it hit me. People are on My Space to have community. Or at least some representation of community. I mean, if you had really fulfilling relationships in real life, you'd never look for 2D cutouts of friends on a screen. Right? Well, it turns out that people that have tons of real-life friends are on My Space too... And that's when it really hit me. People love My Space because it give them community that they control. It's MY space after all. Not yours. I can click "No" on you being my friend. And because I'm not face to face with you, I don't have to deal with all the ramifications of that. I define My Space. It's mine.

Now - where's the worship? Well, Christians in America tend to forget that Christianity is a community thing. God's chosen people. His people. We're in His Space. And by default we're connected in Christ as the unified body of believers. So that guy who I walk by in the halls of my church and say hi to but don't really want to spend any time with is just as much in the community as my best friend next to me.

But I'd much rather be alone in Christianity. Why? Because then I can control my community. I can have my church and my God and my friends and no one else can come in unless I let them. I won't get dragged down by all you fellow sinners out there. And that, my friends (if I allow you to be), is worship. Of my space. It's me telling God that his idea of a bride of the church stinks compared to my idea of what Christ's bride should be. Because deep down I think I'm better than God. My space is better than yours, his, and ours. Isn't it?

But it turns out that God designed us to need one another. For some reason (paraphrasing U2 here), sometimes we can't make it on our own. In America, we call that weakness. In the church we call that community. I need that guy in the hall, and I need my best friend. Otherwise the body of the church is incomplete. I'm no theologian, but maybe God designs us to need others as an example of how we need Him.

So I'm thinking about that this week. And I'm wondering why God mushed all us believers together in a community when we clearly don't really like each other or really want to be grouped together. And I'm wondering, will I ever like His space more than mine?