TADB 52: Flatland to Spaceland

At Kitty Hawk, North Carolina on Dec 17, 1903, Orville and Wilbur Wright made history when they flew a heavier-than-air machine 120 feet (less than the wingspan of many modern aircraft).  That event opened a new perspective that changed our lives forever.  We were no longer confined to the surface of the earth under the control gravity:  we could fly.  Travel in space became a real possibility.

During the Enlightenment, pioneers like Newton and Bernoulli discovered another law:  the law of lift.  The new law of lift didn’t eliminate the old law of gravity, but it countered it.  This new law simply states that if air passes over a certain shape, an upward force is created, causing the shape—and whatever is connected to it—to lift into that exhilarating space dimension.  The law explains why gliders and jumbo jets fly and rocks do not. 

Living in two dimensions (as we do on Earth) illustrates living in the natural world without God.  In this reality, spiritual gravity (sin) distorts the beauty of the two dimensional and makes everyone a prisoner of it.  However, lift (the gospel or the Spirit of life) sets Christians free from the limitations and penalty of gravity to now live in the added spiritual dimension.

Paul explains this concept in Romans 8:1-2:  “Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death.”

More than one hundred years ago, Edwin Abbott wrote Flatland, an allegory that shows how difficult it is to comprehend a new dimension.  Flatland is a world of two dimensional geometric shapes and living there is like living on the top of a table.  There is length and width, but no height.  The allegory is told through the eyes of Mr. Square: a scholarly and respectable gentleman.

One day Mr. Square meets Mr. Sphere who is from a three dimensional world.  In their curious conversation, the sphere insists that there are three dimensions not just two.  As a sphere, this character knows about length and width but also height.  From his third dimension of height, the sphere explains that he can see “down” into the homes of Flatland—something the square cannot fathom, grasp, understand, or even accept as true.

Finally, out of frustration, Mr. Sphere picks up Mr. Square and lifts him up into the 3^rd dimension so he can actually look down.  Shazam!  He gets it. 

The allegory continues as Mr. Square is placed back down into Flatland and he now tries to explain his new found experience to those still trapped in 2-Dimensions.  Abbot wrote his book to attack the social structures of his day.  Einstein read it frequently to support his belief that there are more dimensions than our traditional four…perhaps even up to ten in the cosmos. 

Years ago I read Flatland to help me understand how my own journey to faith was much like Mr. Square.  Jesus came to us squares as a sphere.  And, like the sphere in Flatland, He not only describes life in 3-D, but also offers to lift us up and allow us to experience its reality and even be transformed to actually fit into the 3-D kingdom of God.

Interestingly, God originally designed humans as three dimensional—spiritual beings.  But the human 3-D experience was short-lived.  As a result of the fall, we lost our spiritual dimension and became trapped in two dimensions (Genesis 3).  The vacuum left in the human heart calls out for this missing dimension as Solomon says, “He has set eternity in their hearts” (Ecclesiastes 3:11).  The gospel message of the kingdom is that we can be reborn to discover the lost dimension.  What was lost in the first Adam is reestablished in Jesus Christ. 

Some seek what’s missing through self-effort.  But self-effort is really only a spiritual pogo stick.  When I was in grade school, the pogo stick was as popular as the skateboard is today.  We even had square dance lessons on pogo sticks in PE class.  Kids loved this experience so much they would hop around like kangaroos trying to set world records for jumping endurance.  Why?  Because when skillfully used a pogo stick could put you into the third dimension for a couple of seconds.  However, it could never sustain the break with gravity.

In the same way, self-effort alone can only offer short-lived breaks from spiritual gravity. Only true discipleship can supernaturally break the pull of spiritual gravity.  Yet when Jesus announced that the transformational third dimension of the kingdom of God was at hand, the Jews would not believe it.  They were looking for a complete release from the push-and-pull associated with two-dimensional life.  They simply wanted a more comfortable life in their 2-D world — an expectation that persists among Christians today.

However, comfort in our 2-D world is not the goal of 3-D living as evidenced by the fact that even those closest to Christ then, as well as now, experience pain, suffering and loss.   Rather the goal is spiritual transformation to be like Christ.           

Learning to live in but not of this world, is the challenge and the adventure of discipleship on the resurrection side of the cross is learning how to experience our 2-D world through the lens of our new, 3-D, spiritual dimension.  We don’t escape (yet) the pull of gravity, but we can have freedom from its control.

“Since you have been raised to new life with Christ, set your sights on the realities of heaven, where Christ sits in the place of honor at God’s right hand.  Think about the things of heaven, not the things of earth.  For you died to this life, and your real life is hidden with Christ in God” (Colossians 3:1-3).

Questions for reflection

1.  What makes living with all three dimensions difficult for you?

2.  How do we make our new third dimension our primary/priority dimension? 

Taken from Intentional Disciplemaking, p 37-39