In his book Soul Cravings, Erwin Raphael McManus writes, “Home is ultimately not about a place to live but about the people with whom you are most fully alive. Home is...about community and belonging, and we are all searching for home.”
Indeed, God has created us with a desire to belong. We have a need to know that we are part of a larger whole. But the reality is that there may be times when we don’t feel like we fit in. We may feel as if someone or something put us outside a circle; everyone else is standing in the center while we look on from the outside. We may feel like we don’t belong.
If you feel as if you don’t fit in, let me offer you this encouragement: Could it be that your Creator intentionally and strategically placed you outside the circle because he wants you to do something great for Him? Remember that being set apart for greatness sometimes means being set apart from the status quo. You can’t influence the world and be like the world. Focusing on this truth will turn your feelings of not belonging into thoughts of purpose and privilege.
You are different from others because God made you different on purpose, for a purpose.
Remember Noah? He was rejected by his neighbors and was different from them because God had given him a purpose which required that he be different. There must have been times when Noah felt like an outsider, but he was an insider with God.
Remember Moses? When those he led into the Promised Land argued with him and stood against him (Exodus 17:3), he must have felt like an outsider. But he was exactly where he needed to be because He was fulfilling God’s plans.
There have been times as I have been moving in my God-given purpose that I have envied others with “normal” lives. As I traveled around the country, spoke to groups, and lived out of a suitcase, they spent time with their families, worked 8-5 jobs, and mowed their yards on the weekends. There were days when I longed to wake up in the same bed every day; I wanted the comfort of the familiar. And there were times when I felt different from others. Then the obvious hit me: There are times when I can’t do what everyone else does and be like everyone else and still fulfill God’s purpose for my life. You can’t, either.
Dare to be different for God.
