Sphere: What Defines the Center of Your Universe?

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Have you ever looked at someone and said, “You really live in your own little world?” The truth is we all tend to do just that. For some of us, however, the world is bigger than for others.


We all have our little bubbles around us. Engineers have to account for this when they design the things we use. Most of us like to keep the boundaries of our bubbles right around three feet or so. It becomes our safe little universe; our own little sphere of influence which we guard and patrol.

If you do not believe me try this: The next time you enter an elevator that is otherwise pretty empty stand right next to someone. Get right next to their shoulder. You do not have to touch them. Just get inside their bubble.

I predict that you will notice two things. First of all, you will probably feel uncomfortable. Secondly, you will notice the other person becoming uncomfortable. One last word of advice, do not do this in a building with more than a couple of floors or you could be in for a very long, uncomfortable ride.

So why is this? Why does it make us so uncomfortable to have someone violate our little sphere? Notice that this does not include everyone. We also have people we let within our bubble.

Family, friends, our romantic interests: they are all people we allow access to our sphere. We will even let people touch us.

How ironic that in this age of social networking, when everyone has a thousand “friends” they have never met, that our spheres seem to be getting smaller and smaller. Perhaps we need a new language to think about the people we let into our little worlds. Or, maybe we need to re-learn a language we have already forgotten.

At one time people used terms like, friend, neighbor, acquaintance and intimate in order to define the nature of the relationships in their lives. “Intimates” was reserved for the closest of relationships, both filial and romantic. These were relationships which might even be considered closer than family. Acquaintances were people on the periphery of your life. Not quite friends but not quite strangers.

I think this language is fine and even very useful, especially in today’s culture. The problem I see, however, is this. Regardless of the language we use it is the way we define these terms that sets limits on the sphere we live in.

The problem is one of categories and who defines those categories. We like to define these categories solely in terms of our needs and our wants. Specifically, we determine admittance to our little sphere based on what is most convenient for us. It can be rather utilitarian at times, reducing people to commodities whose role in our lives is contingent upon their ability to make us happy – whatever that may mean to us. Most of us would never say to someone, “You are my friend because it is expedient for me”, but our actions often betray us.

The biggest problem with this as I have seen it in my own life, the life of others and the life of the church, is that when we use our own narrow categories to define who can be in or out of our sphere, we end up having a really tiny little bubble that only gets smaller as time goes on.

As long as the people we have let into our sphere play by our rules and do what makes us happy, everything is good. But, if they suddenly contradict our goals, or, God forbid, expect us to be mutually concerned with their happiness, the boundaries shift and we move them to the outside. They no longer fit into our categories.

So, our bubble shrinks, growing smaller and smaller with each judgment we make. Until, finally, we find our self utterly alone without the bothersome demands of others. This is the human nightmare – to be alone.

There is an episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation that provides a good metaphor. I the episode “Remember Me” Dr. Crusher gets trapped in an experimental warp bubble. In essence, she is trapped a little sphere shaped universe defined by her own little perspective.

For a time things go well but then she begins to notice something unusual. People are missing from the ship. Most unusual is the fact that no one else seems to notice or even remember who they were.

The nightmare progresses like this. At first, it is people on the very boundaries of her life who go missing. They are people in whom she had a passing professional interest. At an ever increasing pace more and more people pass from her sphere, including her closest friends. Finally she is left alone in her own little universe.

So, how does she escape the nightmare? Can we avoid Dr. Crusher’s fate? What must happen if we are to do so?

The problem is, once again, one of categories. Dr. Crusher’s universe was suited to her ability to define and maintain it. She was, for all intents and purposes, the center of her own little universe. So too, our spheres are defined by our own categories and reflect the narrow definitions we use. We need a greater perspective that can redefine our categories, allowing them to encompass more of creation and broadening the boundaries of our sphere.

In the end, Dr. Crusher was saved by others from beyond her little sphere whose universe was larger. We must also turn to one whose point of view is larger than ours.

God is in the work of redefining our categories and popping the bubbles we create. In light of his perspective our definitions of friend, enemy neighbour and even family take on whole new meaning. Terms like good, bad, clean, unclean, righteous and unrighteous are turned on their heads.

Jesus made a friend of a Roman Centurion in whom he found much faith. A teacher of the law, seeking to justify himself, asked Jesus to define neighbour. For Jesus it was anyone in need of grace and mercy.

When told that his family was at the door, He asked who his family was. It was anyone who would hear the will of God and do it. For the sake of repentance he proclaimed a tax collector good, conferred righteousness upon a prostitute and gave paradise to a dying thief. For the sake of compassion he pronounced the leper clean.

We think of Jesus dying alone but I tell you this, He was never alone for his world was big and his sphere had room for all of creation. He defined who could be a part of his world from his father’s perspective. From time to time we are all at risk of succumbing to the narrowness of our own little world. The burdensome loneliness of that ever contracting sphere can seem overwhelming even unto the point of death. Have hope and rejoice, however, for a new way of seeing can give you the world.