I Don't Know Where I Fit
Ý
Copyright 2003 by William Meisheid (4-1-03)
In a recent episode of the NBC television series
Crossing Jordon, one of the medical examiners goes through a crisis over a
"John Doe" homicide. This unknown murder victim, who appeared to be a street
person, a nobody, comes to represent his own sense of loneliness and
alienation. The examiner had been waiting for his U.S. citizenship to come
through (his ancestry was from India by way of England), expecting it to
give him the sense of belonging he was missing. It doesn't. In the closing
scene of the episode he looks at his citizenship papers and says to a
colleague, "I don't know where I fit. I don't know how to find my place."
He is not unique. Everyone wants to fit in, to find
their place in the world they are a part of. For Christians, this includes
finding our place within the church, as well as the additional concern of
learning where we fit into God's plan. We look at our Christian citizenship
papers and want to know what is our place in the Christian enterprise.
We all remember the famous scene of Mark 10:37 where
the apostles James and John ask Jesus to let them sit at his left and right
when he comes into his glory. Jesus' final response on the matter was his
statement on servant hood in Mark 10 43-45
"Not so with you. Instead, whoever
wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to
be first must be slave of all. For even the Son of Man did not come to be
served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many."
Thinking about this issue of belonging and fitting in
reminded me of a situation that occurred when I was a relatively new a
Christian. I had a friend from college who had resisted accepting Christ for
several years because she was afraid she would lose all her friends. She was
afraid of being alone. When she finally took the step into life with Jesus
Christ her fear was proved right. Her friends lost interest in her. This new
person, no longer "the party life person", instead had become "the trying to
change her life person", and she was not the kind of individual they wanted
to be around. Fortunately for her she eventually developed new friends in
the body of Christ, but it took time and life was seriously lonely for a
while. Looking back I remember that she had several advantages in finding
new Christian friends. She was attractive, outgoing, and intelligent. It
helped that she was eminently lovable and willing to take risks by extending
herself.
When you look at a church, especially one that has had
a period of effective evangelism, it is mostly composed of people who don't
know each other outside of their "church" time. That can be a problem,
especially if those people have lost their previous friends by coming to
Christ. Some of us are not as eminently lovable as my college friend. Some
of us only have the church, but within its walls we are still isolated
because it is not easy for adults to make friends, even within the church of
Jesus Christ.
We all, like James and John, want to have our place in
the scheme of things. While we all don't aspire to sit at the head table, we
all want to know that we have a place, that we belong. Like his response to
James and John, Jesus also responds to us with the answer of servant hood,
with his desire for us to change our focus from ourselves to those he calls
us to serve. While we can accept that intellectually, even submitting to it
in practice by extending ourselves in Christian service, we still have that
need to fit in, to be in the right place, to be accepted. Fortunately, Jesus
did not leave us without additional solace in this area. In John 14:1-3 he
says
Do not let your hearts be troubled.
Trust in God; trust also in me. In my Father's house are many rooms; if it
were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for
you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you
to be with me that you also may be where I am.
Jesus understands our needs. He assures us that we
belong, that we fit in, that he has a place for us, and it is with him.
Within our church and the Christian church at large
there are many lonely people, looking to find where they fit in, where they
belong. I would like to suggest that for the month of April and in
celebration of Easter that you consider making a new Christian friend. Help
someone better fit into the body of Christ. On the television show I
discussed at the beginning, the scene closed with one of his colleagues
looking at him and saying, "You are exactly where you belong." I suggest
that you tell someone in the body of Christ who might be struggling with
their place in the church that "You are exactly where you belong." Extend to
them the love and acceptance of Christ.
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