Dear Feeling Out of Place,
I feel like I'm at a very awkward age/life stage right now. This is particularly true at church. I'm 29 years old-almost in my 30's. Scary! But since I'm unmarried with no children, I feel like there's not really a home base/community for people around my age and in the same life stage at church. We have a young adult group for 18-25 year olds. We have groups for couples, for stay at home moms, single moms, but none really for anyone 25+ up who are just focusing on other things right now. And I know this is difficult because most people that go to my church are either college kids or families. So why would they create something for the one (maybe more) people who aren't part of any of those groups. I understand all of this and yet I still feel like an outsider sometimes because I don't "belong" in any group.
This has made me think about how much of our identity is tied to what "group" we belong to or see ourselves in. We're either a "college student" "teenager" "wife" "single mom" "divorced parent" etc. The stage we're at in life right now shouldn't define us. Mostly because it will most likely change eventually, but also because it is not who we are. Yes, it's a part of our life and it influences our decisions, perspective, and behavior. But it ultimately doesn't sum us all up in a neat tidy bow. We are so much more than any of these groups or labels we put ourselves in. I'm not saying it's a bad thing to put ourselves there, it's just that can't be ALL we focus on. When we only choose to focus or define ourselves as this one thing , and then that changes or we lose it somehow, then we feel completely lost. But the truth is we do have somewhere we always belong. That is with God. Our identity is found in God. We are His child. He is ours and we are His.
Psalm 100:3 NIV "Know that the Lord is God. It is he who made us, and we are his. We are his people, the sheep of his pasture."
