Finding Purpose Through Authentic ConnectionSample

Most of us are blind to the ideological bubbles in which we hide. We live in the most isolated time in history, and as everyone who lived through the COVID-19 isolation orders knows all too well, isolation takes its toll. Living safely locked inside an ideological bubble, completely separated from anyone who looks different or thinks differently or sees the world through a different lens, is just as damaging as being stuck inside your house indefinitely. I don’t know about you, but I couldn’t wait for the all-clear to sound so that I could get out and go hang with my friends or go to church and worship in person rather than watching services on a computer screen. The months of isolation reminded us that we are made to connect with others, which is why we have to break out and make meaningful connections beyond our safe little bubbles. In the last book of the Bible, in a picture of heaven painted in Revelation 7:9, the writer described “a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and before the Lamb.” On that day, race won’t matter and culture won’t matter and money won’t matter—nothing that divides us now will matter. Instead, we will all be united, singing praises to the One who loves us more than our minds can understand. I believe what will be true someday in heaven can be true here on earth—all it takes is for each one of us to break out of our bubbles and take that scary trip into our discomfort zone to connect. The trip is worth it, and the bubble is worth bursting!