I Don’t Belong Here

I don’t belong here.

Have you ever heard this refrain circle through your mind?
Is it a bad thing?

To not belong somewhere is, needless to say, not a good association. It is associated with loneliness and isolation. Those are not feelings that we long to have.
But as Christians, maybe this feeling is not such a bad thing.
“But you belong to God, my dear children. You have already won a victory over those people, because the Spirit who lives in you is greater than the spirit who lives in the world.”

If what we’re missing is the world’s happiness, then that is a good thing. Every Christian will feel a little out of place in this world. That’s because we don’t belong here. We belong to God, and His ways are always better than the ways of the world.

And if you don’t feel like something’s missing?

Then you might want to check yourself.

“If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own.” But we don’t want to belong to the world. We want to belong to God.

There is an example I like from Pilgrim’s progress. It is an allegory of two children, Passion and Patience. Passion is supposed to be the child representing this world; when he gets riches he spends them all immediately, and is left with nothing. Patience, however, representing the people of God, waits for his riches, which God provides. We don’t feel like we belong because we are God’s people. This world is not our world, so we cannot get too attached to it.

But what should you do if you do feel attached to the world? That we will discuss on Friday, but I do want to give you one hint:

It starts with the letter B.