Blog by Rachel Brown
I was in the 8th Grade and for Physical Education class we were learning to play baseball. The teacher assigned two students to be the captain of each team and these students were assigned the task of populating their team. They took turns to call out the name of the person they wanted on their team. As the crowd dwindled, and my name hadn’t been called yet, an overwhelming sense of inadequacy, isolation and loneliness overshadowed me. “PLEASE DON’T LET ME BE THE LAST ONE LEFT”, was the thought shouting in my head.
That 8th grade girl is long gone but over the years the sense of not ‘fitting in’ or ‘not belonging’ has tried to overwhelm me at different stages of my life. At times it would have been easier to isolate myself rather than push through feelings of awkwardness or run the risk of being uncomfortable, but I have come to realize that no one benefits if I succumb to comfort or isolation – not me, not my friends and certainly not the people I’m meant to influence.
I love the scripture that encapsulates the theme of our Devoted Conference this year –
Ephesians 2:19-20 (MSG), “That’s plain enough, isn’t it? You’re no longer wandering exiles. This kingdom of faith is now your home country. You’re no longer strangers or outsiders. You belong here, with as much right to the name Christian as anyone. God is building a home. He’s using us all—irrespective of how we got here—in what he is building.”
Sweetheart, you belong!! You belong to a company of women who want to change their world, bring heaven to earth and see eternity set in the hearts of others. We cannot wait to welcome you to our Conference – I believe it will be a defining moment in our lives!!
YOU BELONG at Devoted Conference 2017
Register HERE