There’s a TV commercial from one of the cell phone companies that shows people walking around inside of bubbles with other people. For the purpose of the commercial, it represents the limitations of that person’s calling plan (whom they can call without having to tap into their allotment of minutes for that month). But for me, it’s a much sadder commentary on the people who call ourselves Christians.

As I mentioned two weeks ago, I taught a workshop at a Romance Writers of America chapter conference in Shreveport, Louisiana, the first weekend of March. Though I feel like I do a good job of staying in touch with what’s going on in the world at large, I realized once I was there, it’s been since 2006—since I finished grad school and left my job at the Nashville newspaper to work for a small Christian publishing house—that I’ve truly been part of that “world at large.” Sure, I read general-market books and go see movies of all ratings. I listen to NPR regularly, watch the local news each evening, laugh along with The Daily Show on weeknights, and have a designated cable news/opinion channel of choice. I read blogs from across the spectrum—from very conservative to very liberal. I read selections from several publications—from The New York Times to Huffington Post to The Wall Street Journal.

And I feel like I’m a pretty well-rounded person. I don’t let any one source dictate what I believe or stand for.

Yet when it comes to my writing, and to the writing groups of which I’m a member, I’m most definitely in a “bubble,” just like those people in that commercial. You see, up until last week, the only writing groups I was a member of/actively participated in were Christian writing groups, both local and national. Those groups, in addition to my extended family, pretty much make up the extent of my social life, as I’m not yet actively involved in the church I’ve been visiting since last fall. I’ve lost touch with most of the people I used to work with at the newspaper. And even though I’m still in contact with a lot of people from graduate school, I’d consider them more acquaintances than true friends.

Something I said to the members and visitors at the Middle Tennessee Christian Writers meeting Saturday really struck home with me—but in a different way than what I was talking about. I was conducting a workshop on the Fundamentals of Critiquing, and at one point told them that it’s important to find critique partners whose strengths match up with our weaknesses and vice versa; that if we work with critique partners whose skills and knowledge exactly match ours, not only are we not going to help each other, we’re eventually going to start hindering each other—because we’ll never grow, we’ll never learn, we’ll never extend beyond what we already have.

Over the past couple of weeks, I’ve had the opportunity to meet and start getting to know better several other authors here in Nashville—authors who not only write for the general market (cozy mysteries, thrillers, steamy romances) but who are most definitely outside of the bubble in which I’ve increasingly wrapped myself; a bubble that, at times, is barely big enough to hold me. A bubble that, I fear, has been impacting me negatively for quite some time.

If you’ve read my posts on the Singleness page, you’ll know that I’ve grown tired of the elitist, cliquish attitudes I’ve found at most of the churches where I’ve been a member or visited over the past decade of my life. That I’ve railed against people who cling so mightily to only those people who are like them, who hold the same values, live the same lifestyle they do.

Yet here I am, doing the same thing by allowing myself to become disconnected with that “world at large.” I realized, coming home from that conference, that I don’t have one friend who isn’t a “church person” with whom I spend a lot of time. I do have a couple of cousins who have left the organized church to seek their own paths, and I try to stay in close touch with them just so they remember someone in the extended family doesn’t condemn them for that decision. But we’re not close. Not close enough that they’re holding up a mirror for me or that I’m holding up a mirror for them—challenging who we are and what we believe.

There are certain topics, certain issues I would love to include in my books. But I can’t, because it would rattle cages—would challenge strongly held beliefs by the majority of my readers, and, thus, the sales of my books would suffer. (Don’t get me wrong, I love writing the kinds of stories I write with the kinds of characters I write. I’d just like to go out on a limb every so often, like having my hero and heroine meet for a glass of wine instead of a cup of coffee—oh, horrors!)

I’ve been a member of Romance Writers of America for about two years now, but hadn’t been at all active in it. Mostly because the other RWA members I already know, I know from other (Christian) writing groups. So a few weeks ago, I decided I should join the Published Author Network (PAN). Then, after attending the North Louisiana RWA chapter’s conference and meeting someone there from the Nashville chapter (Music City Romance Writers) I started thinking about joining the local RWA chapter. A couple of days after getting home, I attended a new writing friend’s book signing at Barnes & Noble and ended up sitting next to someone else from the MCRW chapter. So I took that as a sign and came home and joined the chapter that night. I’ll be attending the first meeting this coming Saturday.

I don’t want to be one of the “bubble people” anymore. I don’t want to be so wrapped up in the Christian circles I’m a member/leader of that I forget that to be a light for God to the world I must be actively participating in the world and not just feeding all of my energy—creatively, spiritually, physically, emotionally—back into the bubble; while also not allowing myself to be conformed to the world, but transformed by the renewing of my mind. And how can my mind be renewed if I’m never presented with any new ideas, new questions, new doubts—anything outside of the bubble—with which to challenge and thus help strengthen and grow my faith?

Are you living in a bubble—church, small group, Bible study, homeschool group, Christian writing group? Do you have friends who aren’t other “bubble people,” whose regular speech isn’t embroidered with religious lingo, who don’t pray about everything, who don’t read “Christian” books, who don’t know the words to every song on the CCM Top Ten list, who go see Rated-R movies, who wouldn’t even know how to find the “Religion” section of a Barnes & Noble? Do you know anyone who is an atheist or agnostic—whom you haven’t tried to evangelize but only befriend? Are you renewing your mind by being open to those with different ideas, different beliefs, different sexual orientations, different family structures, different stances on political and social issues and engaging in conversation with them and allowing your own beliefs and stances to be challenged so that you can grow, both intellectually and in your faith? Are you expanding your knowledge of God by looking for Him at work outside of the bubble (or box) we as Christians try to keep Him in; by being able to admit that we can’t know and understand all the ways in which God chooses to work in the world and in those outside of our bubbles?

Are you personally reaching out and connecting with those in the world with love and fellowship or only to those inside your bubble?