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When You Feel Like You Don’t Belong Anywhere · Daily Devotions for Busy Lives

• 0:01
  Speak: By the time Breanne Eckman was 17, she had moved six
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  times and changed schools almost as often. She was what people
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  call a third culture kid, someone who grows up moving
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  between countries and picking up pieces of each one. It sounds
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  like an adventure, and in a lot of ways it was, but it came with
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  a question she couldn't shake. When someone asked, where are
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  you from? She never had a quick answer. She wasn't fully from
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  her passport country, and she wasn't fully from any of the
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  places she'd lived. She belonged a little bit everywhere and not
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  really anywhere. Under all the moving and the goodbyes, Breanne
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  had a question she couldn't answer. If she belonged nowhere,
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  she had no idea who that made her. We'll come back to the
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  answer Breanne found, but
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  first, welcome to Daily Devotions for Busy Lives. I'm
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  Bart Leger. For I worked full-time as a first responder
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  and served as a chaplain at the same time. I swapped those two
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  roles in the same day, sometimes more than once. On a call, I was
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  one of the guys, and an hour later, I was the one they wanted
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  praying over a family. While I was useful in both roles, I was
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  never all the way at home in either one. To the guys, I was
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  the chaplain, and to a lot of church folks, I was the one who
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  worked a I got good at moving between them, and I never
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  stopped noticing that I was moving. Some Christians go years
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  feeling like they don't quite fit anywhere. The people at work
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  don't share your faith, so there's a layer of your life
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  really they can't go into. The old friends have drifted, and
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  you keep looking for the community where you'd finally
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  belong, and it keeps not arriving. What makes it
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  confusing is that you have done what you think is all the right
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  things. You joined the church, you brought the dish to the
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  potluck, and you stayed after to help clean up, and you still
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  feel apart from everyone else. The writer of Hebrews has a
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  description of God's people that refers to their sense of not
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  belonging. It's in Hebrews 11, 13 through 16. All these people
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  still died believing what God had promised them. They did not
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  receive what was promised, but they saw it all from a distance
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  and welcomed it. They agreed that they were foreigners and
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  nomads here on earth. Obviously, people who say such things are
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  looking forward to a country they can call their if they had
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  longed for the country they came they could have gone back. But
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  they were looking for a better place, a heavenly homeland. That
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  is why God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has
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  prepared a city for them." Look at how that passage opens. They
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  died, still believing, and they didn't receive what was promised.
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  The writer leads with the not arriving. Then look at the words
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  he uses. "Foreigners" and "nomads". A nomad is someone
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  living temporarily in a place with no citizenship rights. He's
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  describing a legal status. These people were resident aliens.
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  Here's the part almost nobody notices. Verse 15: "If they had
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  longed for the country they came from, they could have gone back.
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  The road home was open the entire time. Nobody was holding
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  them. They stayed displaced on purpose year after year because
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  of where they were headed." Now look at Verse 16: "It opens by
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  pointing back at everything we just read. That is why God is
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  not ashamed to be called their God. He ties His own name to
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  people who wouldn't settle for the old country." and then the
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  last "He has prepared a city for them. The belonging already
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  exists. God built it and it's waiting for them." which means
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  the thing you've been
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  auditioning churches and groups for hasn't addressed you haven't
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  The belonging already exists. God built it and it's waiting
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  for them. And then the last line. "He has prepared a city for The
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  belonging already exists. God built it and it's waiting. Which
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  means the thing you've been auditioning churches and groups
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  for has an address you haven't. So the not fitting may be
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  telling you which direction you're facing. There's no
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  perfect place this side of heaven. Every church and group
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  is filled with broken people like you and me. Breanne's
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  question about where she was had no good answer. Now, two things
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  to do with that. The first is to hold it loosely. Quit asking any
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  group of people to be the end all be all. No church and no
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  friendship was built for that job. Then take what God gives
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  you and receive it as a gift. The Sunday school class where
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  two people know your situation. The fellow believer at work who
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  prays with you in the parking lot. Those pieces were handed to
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  you on the way. People who decided nothing here will ever
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  fit have a habit of walking right past them. Breanne came to
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  an answer that gave her life meaning and belonging. She
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  realized her identity was never going to come from a country or
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  a culture. It came from Christ.
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  And that belonging didn't change when the address did. She wrote
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  that the gospel set her free because it gave her a home that
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  no move could ever take away. from, but she finally knew who
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  she was. And that turned out to be the question that mattered.
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  Notice what changed for her. The question went from where to
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  whose. She couldn't answer the first one in a hundred moves.
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  The second one was settled the day she came to Christ. Here's
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  today's challenge. Write down the group you've been hoping
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  would finally feel like home. A church or an old circle of
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  friends. Then tell God you're releasing that group from a job
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  it was never given. Then make a list of the pieces of belonging
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  you already have. Even if it's just one or two. Reach out to
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  someone else this week and thank God for what you do have. And
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  read Hebrews 11: 16 before bed. God isn't ashamed to be called
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  your God and he has a city built for you. Father, you called your
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  people foreigners and nomads and you are not ashamed to be called
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  their God. Thank you that you've prepared a city and that the
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  belonging we've been hunting for is already built for us. For
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  everybody listening who's tired of not fitting. Give them rest
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  about it and help them receive the pieces of home you've handed
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  them along the way. In Jesus' name. Amen. This podcast runs on
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  the generosity of listeners just like you. If Daily Devotions for
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  Busy Lives has encouraged you would you consider supporting it
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  with a one-time gift or by becoming a monthly supporter?
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  Every contribution helps keep these devotions coming every
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  week. You can give at
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  DailyDevotionsforBusyLives.com/support . Thank you so much, and thanks
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  for joining me on Daily Devotions for Busy Lives.
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  Remember, God's not ashamed to be called the God of people who
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  never quite fit here on planet Earth. He has a city ready for
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  you. Come back next time for more encouragement to help you
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  live grounded in God's truth. Until then, God bless and have a
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  great day.