Brené Brown 1
Stop walking through the world looking for confirmation that you don’t belong. You will always find it because you’ve made that your mission. Stop scouring people’s faces for evidence that you’re not enough. You will always find it because that’s your goal. . . . No one belongs here more than you.
Brené Brown
What does it feel like to live as if “no one belongs here more than you”? To know you are welcomed, accepted, and embraced as “one of us,” no matter what?
I (Brad) often have to remind myself of this truth. As you’ll read in part 2, I grew up feeling like an outsider, and as an adult, I still don’t quite fit in most of the time. I find myself distant from other people’s experiences, lifestyles, or choices.
But as I read Scripture and spend time with other Jesus followers, I counter my negative self-talk with this Christ-centered answer to the question, Where do I fit?
I belong WITH God’s people.
God has created us to be in community WITH God and WITH others through Jesus. We don’t have to earn love, acceptance, or our place in the body of Christ. We belong to God and to one another.
We are not alone. We are family.
What’s more, our truest belonging is not dependent on the success or failure of others to live it out. It has already been decided by the unconditional love of God.
WITH is our core word for belonging because it symbolizes the heart of God to be near us, among us, and close to us as beloved children for whom God’s heart beats. God is WITH us—no matter what.
Each post in part 2 explores a different angle of what it means to belong with God and one another. We hope you’ll see one word underneath all the rest: WITH.