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Have you felt it? It's a feeling that passes as quickly as it appears. It comes at different times and in different situations, a feeling that you can't quite put your finger on. It can happen while you're looking into the face of your child or glancing at the night sky. It sometimes appears while watching television or reading a book. It's a feeling that you were made for something different -a feeling that where you are at the moment is not your true destiny, your true calling, your true home. Have you felt it?I don't belong here.
I'm at a conference on business. One evening I have to attend a hospitality at a restaurant for our clients. The talk is of politics and sports and work. Who's divorcing who, who's in line for a promotion, who's moving on to another job. People are drinking and smoking and having a good time. I try to fit in, to talk the small talk along with them. But I just can't shake the feeling.
I don't belong here.
I walk outside to my truck one summer night to get something. On the way back into the house I look up in sky and notice how beautiful it is. It's one of those nights where everything is so clear that you can literally see millions of stars. Your life seems so small and the universe so big. The feeling is fleeting, just there for a second.
I don't belong here.
You're with some people and everyone is talking about the election. Some are excited that their candidate has won, sure that everything is going to change. Others are dejected because their candidate has lost and they are sure this is the end of America as we know it. In the midst of the conversation, you realize something. It's not that you don't care, but the things that are so important to everyone else at that moment are just not that important to you. There it is again.
I don't belong here.
I'm watching a television show where they pick families to build a house for. In this one episode, they've built a house for a deaf family, and someone has donated college scholarships to the children. It's just people helping people - one person showing mercy and compassion to another. As my eyes fill with tears, that feeling comes again.
I don't belong here.
Romans 8: 22-23 For we know that the whole creation groans and labors with birth pangs together until now. Not only that, but we also who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, eagerly waiting for the adoption, the redemption of our body.
There's something in us that knows we don't belong here, that we were made for so much more. And every once in a while we catch a glimpse of it and that feeling rushes in for just a second and then it's gone. This is not our home, not this earth and not this body. One day we'll see clearly, and what an unbelievable day that will be.
1 John 3:2 Beloved, now we are children of God; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is.
Even so, come, Lord Jesus!
This one brought tears to my eyes! You have put into words how I have felt often. I didn't know how to verbalize "I don't belong here."
ReplyDeleteIt happened to me this day!
Hebrews 11:13-14 - We are indeed searching for a homeland, which is with God. Therefore, we are pilgrims here on Planet Earth.
ReplyDeleteI don't belong here is a good way of saying it, Derricke. We truly do not belong here.
Good posting. Can I say "I am very proud of you. You communicate so well with the blog and in the class on discernment."
This world is not my home I am just passing through. I am sojourner here just passing through. Our hearts do long for home if we belong to Him.
ReplyDeleteI have often had that same thought - great posting!
Thanks for the post. Just this past week I was readng Revelation 21 about the New Jerusalem. This is just how I felt. "I don't belong here". what a great day it will be!!
ReplyDeleteThen I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, "Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away." ....
I did not see a temple in the city, because the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple. The city does not need the sun or the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and the Lamb is its lamp. The nations will walk by its light, and the kings of the earth will bring their splendor into it. On no day will its gates ever be shut, for there will be no night there. The glory and honor of the nations will be brought into it. Nothing impure will ever enter it, nor will anyone who does what is shameful or deceitful, but only those whose names are written in the Lamb's book of life."
Your words from the first paragraph: "Have you felt it? It's a feeling that passes as quickly as it appears. It comes at different times and in different situations, a feeling that you can't quite put your finger on."
ReplyDeleteI can't tell you how many times I have felt this. Thanks for writing about it and putting into words what I would not have been able to say.
Seems that others who have responded felt the same way.
Derricke,
ReplyDelete1 Peter 2:19 teaches us that we are a "...chosen generation, a holy nation, a PECULIAR people:..."
By definition, this means that we, as Christians, differ from the ususal or tne norm. As a Christian, we should worry when we begin to feel as if we belong here!
When you feel tha feeling that you can't quite put your finger on, God is whispering a reminder to each of us that we are his peculiar people and should not feel as if we belong. We are never to lose sight of the fact that we are put here by God's design for his plans. It should be our goal whatever we do that God would be glorified!
We recently did a Sunday school lesson regarding personality traits. At one point we studied Peter & how some of his personality traits were exhibited when he denied Jesus 3 times. In his desire to be part of the "in-crowd" & not be recognized as being a disciple of Jesus, Peter gave in to peer pressure & went stood in support with the group persecuting Jesus instead of standing against them. Peter, at that time, was not being a "peculiar people". It cost Peter so much to be a non-peculiar people.
It is my prayer that all of us of Christians never feel as if we belong here...for me, it would mean denial of Jesus Christ and all that he has sacrificed for me!