Along with an oft repeated loudspeaker announcement, this "Mind the Gap" message is found throughout the London Subway system (called The Underground). It is a call to attention, the gap being the space between the edge of the platform and the open subway car doors. The gap could prove hazardous should someone trip into the car or a shoed foot fall into the space.
But I'd suggest "the gap" isn't just found in the London Underground but in our thinking, attachments and convictions. One might fall into the gap of media conspiracy theories, the foolishness of the left/right, red/blue divides. The gap could be one's falling into some kind of personality cult or heeding the media talking heads who want only to keep us whipped up into fear-frenzy. We can go a long way (if even then) before we realize we've fallen into "the gap."
Jesus knows the dangers. Do you recall the miracle of Jesus restoring the sight of the man born blind in chapter 9 of St. John's Gospel? At the end we read this verse (41):
Some of the Pharisees near him heard this and said to him, "Are we also blind?" Jesus said to them, "If you were (physically) blind you would have no guilt; but now that you say, 'We see,' your guilt remains."
Or this found in Matthew 15:14,15 when Jesus is told the Pharisees resent his teaching:
"Let them alone; they are blind guides. And if a blind man leads a blind man both will fall into a ditch (pit)."
When was the last time I realized I'd fallen into a gap, so to speak and acknowledged, "Wow, was I ever taken in," or "How foolish of me to have believed that," or "Did I ever get that wrong."
We might print MIND THE GAP on a post-it and stick on the television or car radio. Make it our home page on the cell phone!
