Need to Belong

Why is it that we feel a need to belong? Who gives us this urge to feel wanted, this need to have a purpose? Why do we try and do what we feel we need to do to fit in? Surely normal is what we make it?

We all belong because we were made to belong "So God created Man and woman" Genesis 1:27. If we weren’t then every time man did something wrong would be the last time. Eating the apple was forbidden, the flood’s from Noah. We are meant to survive if not then God wouldn’t have saved man time after time after time.

We need to think carefully about what we try to do to fit in. Sometimes it can be like having a spade and before we know it, we have dug a hole and life can be like that. We can start doing something which we feel we need to do to fit in but it can end up getting us into a mess. There are examples of this throughout the bible. First Eve had the apple in her hand before she ate it. Haggai 1: 5-6 "Now this is what the Lord almighty says: Give careful thought to your ways. You have planted much, but harvested little. You eat, but never have enough. You drink, but never have your fill. You put on clothes, but are not warm. You earn wages, only to put it in a purse with holes in it." This passage warns us what can happen. Sometimes enough isn’t enough. We can read the bible and read it and read it and it cant change us and this is not what this is about. We need to change we need to move. Life is a journey. Although some peoples journeys are shorter than others the destination is the same in the end. We may need to stop off on the way but we all need to keep moving. We need to be willing to change though. If we are not willing then we wont. We have the ability to choose what to do!

We can choose to be a mocker or a gossiper, we can choose what we want to do and the part we play. After all Jesus didn’t say it would be easy.
We need to live in a way that is transparent. How can we be lights of the world if all we are is dark? How can we reflect God’s love it we are dull? The Christian life is not dull, it is not like that. It does not say that we are to be depressed, disappointed or lost. We are chosen by God. Everyone was put on this earth was chosen. Perfect to do the plan that god has set before them. "For I know the plans I have for you." "Plans to prosper you not harm you. Plans to give you hope" (Jeremiah 29: 11)

How powerful is the word "hope". Hope is positive, it is uplifting. Hope is believing. If you don’t believe in something you can’t hope it will happen! I am not saying we should all be smiles all the time, but the need to feeling to belong has already been dealt with.
So if we all ready to belong then why do we feel the need to t be ourselves? If we are honest we are not always ourselves. We seem to be one way around one group of people and another way for another. But how many of us actually feel worth something? The media doesn’t make me feel wanted. It makes me feel fat, stupid, and useless and dare I say it boring. It’s not just television, magazines are just as bad. If its not mans magazines showing half naked women on a page then its magazines with an article about feeling great about the way you are with an advert for weight watchers with a slim girl on the other page!

I can’t imagine how alone that girl must feel to have to bare all to feel a sense of belonging. "Your body is a temple" 1 Corinthians 6: 19. How can you put a price on that? How can you put a price on something so priceless? Then there are other things to look at. How holy are our bodies? Yet we all treat them like they are rubbish to be thrown out in the trash. Once again I am not saying we shouldn’t enjoy food that is unhealthy but how many of us think about inside? We focus on the outside. We model it to be what we want. Piercings, tattoos, weight loss all the things on the outside but what about our inside stuff? How often do we stand back and think "wow"? Even if you take something as simple as the heart it is still s complex.

Made of four chambers, can beat on its own, made up of different tissues, is elastic, two way pump, conducts electricity. Then you have each individual cell all of which work together. How long would it take for man to invent such a device? Yet this is just one small part of our bodies made for a purpose. If that doesn’t prove we belong then what does! Hearts are designed to last for as long as they are needed yet God gave man the ability to repair them! God made us from the finest materials and sometimes it’s easy to forget that.

We all belong, and Satan wants to take that away from us. He will make us feel like we don’t belong here and to a certain extent we don’t. As Christian we are children of God and one day we will go and join him but right now at this exact time that your reading this you are meant to be. God has planned it, you have a purpose in life and you are meant to belong. Life is a journey but love is the transportation!

--Andi R. (age 19)