“This is a safe space.”
What does the phrase “cue up” for you in your mind? Political correctness?
Safe spaces are actually more dangerous than you might think. Here’s why…
I cringe to think that I’ve ever used the phrase “safe space” in conversation, but since I want to be honest, I admit I have used it at least once in a very difficult conversation. In context, I was walking into a tough…no, that is not accurate enough….”hostile” conversation and wanted to set the tone…. I knew I’d be met with anger and opposition so lo and behold, I found myself at work, at my prior job one day on a phone call, stumbling around how I was going to set the stage for this conversation, and ended up choosing to use that cringeworthy phrase, which did nothing other than to compound the rate at which the entire conversation ended. Thank God for “safe spaces,” right?
It makes me reflect. Whatever the phrase has come to mean or how it’s used, what if in our dying commitment to comfort, we’ve all but killed ourselves trying to build supposedly safe spaces for ourselves, and then instead of keeping us safe they actually keep us in, enclosed by the idol of comfort and closed off from real connection.
What if the socialization we are looking for is one that might actually bring us alive, because it doesn’t fit the abc’s of “political correct speech?” What if the thing that will set us free, is not abiding by society’s supposed “safe spaces,” rather branching out and engaging those we most disagree with, validating their humanity, and loving them regardless?
It kind of sounds like…Jesus. Because it is. You see, fear keeps us enclosed, but love sets us free. God is love and Jesus was God manifest in the flesh. So every time you encounter the God-man Jesus in conversation, you are watching the dynamics of a person who is most fully alive and most generously unafraid of how he’s perceived. He did not do it in a manner which is rude or disrespectful, rather in a way that was direct and full of respect. If the prospect of becoming more unafraid makes you invigorated, well then it just might be because it’s what you were born for. It’s what we were all made for. To be continued….. if you liked this thought stream, please smash the like bottom at the bottom or leave a comment with your thoughts.
Alex Oram
May 13, 2023
James1Seventeen 