The pain of division and separation is unbearably palpable right now.    We’re in the middle of election divide, racial divide, pandemic divide.  Divide, divide, divide.  We’ve all, no doubt, done a great deal of thinking about the best way to reach across divides.   About how to build bridges where a great gulf seems to speak impossibility over any hope of genuine connection. 

One need only drive across a grand architectural bridge that joins an undeniable physical separation to appreciate the utter magnitude of the task.  Imagine someone standing on the edge of the East River in Manhattan one day, looking across to Brooklyn and thinking:

“You know what, I’ll bet that gulf can be bridged.  We can cover 6,000 feet of water -- the span of nearly 17 football fields -- with bricks and iron and trusses.  Stable enough to walk across, drive across, truck across.  We can bridge that divide.” 

It sounds ridiculous to me.  Utterly.  Yet over the course of 14 years and at a cost of 15 million dollars, and with the loss of many lives, the Brooklyn Bridge was completed in 1883. While there is much history associated with the funding of the project, it’s the loss of the life of the original designer John Roebling that’s so sobering.  He died taking compass readings before construction even began.   Compass readings. 

That’s the challenge isn’t it?  Knowing that bridges are never built without sacrifice. Is anything ever really built, truly built, without sacrifice?  Knowing that something is always given to bridge a divide, I guess that’s the key element of the ultimate love story -- God bridging the gap between heaven and earth?  Sacrifice for the sake of connection with our original designer, the maker of heaven and earth, of all that is seen and unseen?  Giving His one and only Son to obliterate division. To bring reconciliation. Peace. Life. Life abundant.

This month’s ridiculous hour mission begins with a question.  What are we afraid of when it comes to reaching across a divide? There are so many divides right now.  I guess the best place to start is in our own divided hearts.  With the fear that keeps us on one of the sides of separation. What if we listed our hesitations and fears. Our obstacles to reaching out.  Really spent some time with what intimidates us. 

Often, we don’t reach because we don’t know what to say or we’re so afraid to say the wrong thing, we say nothing at all.  But what if we didn’t have to say anything. What if the greatest bridge across a divide is the offer to listen.  An invitation to hear another person’s heart.  What if that’s all you really had to do to begin building bridges?

This month’s mobile mission pack contains four parts: 

1. An invitation card:  The small invitation card says “Got time for a cup of coffee or tea?” on one side.  On the other, it says “I just want to spend some time listening. ”  Below this simple statement, there’s room to write your contact information.

• Individually Wrapped Coffee:  An individually wrapped pack of gourmet coffee.

• Individually Wrapped Tea: An individually wrapped pack of gourmet tea.  You may get Jasmine or Cinnamon Spice or Earl Grey or English Breakfast Tea or one of 12 types.

• Gift Container: A really neat gift container that holds all these items together in a way that makes it easy to give them away.  It’s also designed to send the subtle message that a reach can be a gift in and of itself. 

Our mission this month is to pray for the Lord to show us who we should reach.  What divides do we know we need to cross.  As with all our mission packs, set it aside. Wait for God to prompt you. It may be this week or this month or next year.  The seed is there and you’ll be ready when it pops above the surface.  Equipped with something that we hope will make it a little easier to reach.  When you’re ready, write your contact info on that card and deliver or mail or send the invite.  And then, trust that God will work in it.

Sometimes it’s just the reach that matters.  Sometimes they never take us up on the offer. Never say yes to the coffee or tea.  Never even acknowledge the reach. Sometimes they just feel God’s touch because someone bothered to reach across a divide.  And at other times, they say yes.  And in this cultural moment, we do things like “meet” for coffee or tea over zoom or in a safe outdoor socially distanced space.  Or we just talk on the phone.  And if we’re doing it the way we’ve been challenged this month, we consider listening more than we talk.  We listen and watch how God uses that to start to build a bridge.

We can’t wait to hear what God does with this mobile mission.   Your stories of what God is doing with these packs in your hands – well that keeps us going.  Our story link is open 24/7 at theridiculoushour.com for you to share yours.  We’d love to hear from you.  If this month’s mission isn’t your thing, no worries.  Consider giving the pack away to someone who may love it.  Or you may know someone who may want one too.  We’ll send an extra one for you to give away [while supplies last].  We only ask two things. Please don’t throw it away or copy it without our permission.