For this reason I, Paul, the prisoner of Christ Jesus for the sake of your Gentiles —

Ephesians 3:1

And next we have joining us from [origin place], a [identity] who has [what obstacles they’ve overcome], [things they’ve accomplished] and [the rest of the reasons why this person is special.] Please welcome to the stage…

Ephesians 1 and 2 were Paul’s introduction.

How do people intro you? How do you intro yourself? In this world, we list off our credentials, our achievements, our education background and our LinkedIn network. The introduction gives people all the evidence that we are worth being heard and we are worth your time. The introduction gets people amped on how we can potentially change their lives with this encounter with us. The introduction is key to making the person introduced extraordinary and separate, while the rest of us lay folks hold onto that glimmer of hope that we, too, can traverse into that next tier of space.

There are other areas in the Bible were Paul does do exactly these things. He lists off how he’s extraordinary, smart, admired, qualified, and so forth. He takes a different approach here. Instead he uses Ephesians 1 and 2 to talk about us and share all the ways that he and we are really the same, and that this next part is only going to make sense and work if we believe in that unity and community. Ephesians 1 and 2 were treasure troves full of our past, our future, our identity and our relationship to self, each other and God.

How can we take this and revamp how we enter new spaces and new relationships? Instead of looking for all the proof that we deserve to be in this new space and new relationship, simply take that as reality. You deserve to be there. You deserve to be here. Instead can we look for evidence of how we, the people right in front of us and this space we are currently occupying, share the same heartbeat, heartache and hope. How can this relationship, this space and this time teach you more about our shared humanity — needs & desires? We are not so different; we just have different times to speak.