Have you ever felt like you don’t belong? Like you don’t fit anywhere?
Welcome to the club. But it’s not really a club, because as far as your feelings go, there are no other members, right?
Actually, feeling out of place CAN be a good thing. Let me tell you why.
Our church small group “met” recently to conclude our year-long study in the important letter to the Hebrews. A memory came flooding my mind as we discussed one of the concluding exhortations found in chapter 13:
. . . Jesus suffered and died outside the city gates to make his people holy by means of his own blood. So let us go out to him, outside the CAMP, and bear the disgrace he bore.
For this world is not our permanent home; we are looking forward to a home yet to come. Hebrews 13:12-14 NLT
I have felt “outside the camp” even among the different Christian groups (or “camps”) with whom we have been associated over the years. Somehow it seemed that there was a certain “persona” that was characteristic of the group. And the in-crowd all acted the same way, emphasized the same “truths,” used the same vocabulary, and often even looked like one another.
I would feel the “under the surface” and sometimes, “overt” pressure to think and believe and, at times, even look the same way to fit in. But it didn’t work for me for long. What had started out to be a good time of growing together, for me often deteriorated into a sort of “depression” or maybe a rebellion of sorts. I would feel like I needed to sell my soul to the group image to really fit in. And I couldn’t do that because God had been working dramatically in my life to free me little by little from what I call “to-do list” or checklist Christianity. And it seemed that each group had its own “checklist.”
So finally, I came to the point of crying out to God,
LORD, I don’t fit anywhere!
Then came the quiet reply,
You don’t fit anywhere so you can fit anywhere . . . [read that again slowly]
Why?
. . . because nobody owns you
The Holy Spirit’s words set my soul free! I no longer felt a need “to fit” anywhere, so I could go into a group and just be who God made me to be and who Jesus is in and through me as me . . . not as someone else or some group. I can let Jesus live His loving and serving life in and through me no matter where I am. I am free to take my cues from HIM because HE is the owner of my life.
How about you, dear brother and sister? Do you feel like you don’t fit anywhere?
Great news!
You can fit anywhere because you don’t fit anywhere.
No one owns you . . . except the Lover of your Soul. Let HIM live and love and serve through you no matter where you are. Amen.
This is an updated edition of a post originally published on A Branch in the Vine
Featured Image by Here from Pixabay
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