Mind the Gap!

A reflection by Jerry Tepe

Anyone who has visited England, or perhaps even watched some British television shows, is familiar with the expression – Mind the Gap! Mind the Gap in the UK refers to the space between the platform and the rail or subway (underground) car. If your foot gets caught in the gap, you risk possible physical injury.

During Lent, we are often encouraged to reexamine our faith, our beliefs and our lives in light of our faith as taught to us by Jesus. But while we look at these elements, do we sometimes miss the gaps that occur between them and at what risk of injury of another type?

These gaps can occur between our beliefs and our actions in daily life; between what our culture tells us, urges us, to do or how to do things and what our faith tradition from the church and Jesus tells us, urges us, yea commands us to do; between what we are taught to believe and how we translate that into daily life. And we ignore these gaps at our spiritual peril.

It is relatively easy to focus on a faith, a belief, a teaching and yet to miss what happens in the gaps between these specific elements. It is truly how we put the various elements of our faith into action during our daily lives, in our relationships with others and with God, and make the whole work for the betterment of the world and to further God’s purpose for our world and our lives.

In the Education for Ministry (EfM) program we practice a thought process referred to as Theological Reflection or TR. In this process we intentionally bring into focus what our personal beliefs, our culture, and our church tradition/teaching tell us about any particular situation or event. During that process we then can examine where the gaps occur between these various points of view and thus help us focus on what or how we should proceed as Christians. While it is unrealistic to expect those outside of the EfM program to pick up on this process without training and experience, we all can, and should, be mindful of the gaps as we work our way through our daily lives. I encourage you, as part of your Lenten observations, to consider where the gaps occur in your faith and life.