Fall Retreat Devotional | saturday
Belong Anywhere
Take a moment to imagine that you moved to another country today. Specifically, a nation with a culture completely different from your own. No one looks like you, dresses like you, speaks your language, enjoys the same food as you, or shares your worldview. Further, no one has heard of the God you worship. Simple daily interactions are no longer so simple. The way people make and grow friendships seems confusing and hard. Alternatively, when people see how you live, they cannot help but think it’s odd. Some of you may not need to imagine as you have lived this experience. Some of you may know a friend who has. Take a moment and think. How would it feel? Or what did it feel like?
If you are like me, the feelings that come to mind include: fear, self-consciousness, sorrow, loneliness. I imagine feeling like an outsider. All these emotions build into an overwhelming sense that I don’t belong here. Maybe you have not lived this specific experience, but I imagine at some point in your life you have encountered that exact thought. You may have faced the rejection of friends or family, the isolating shame of a public mistake, or the loneliness of being misunderstood. This feeling is crippling. The question I would like us to consider this morning is: How do we continue on in the places where we feel we do not belong?
Before I begin to give an answer, I want to make the question harder. Consider for a moment the life of a missionary. The experience we described before fits them perfectly. These Christians enter into a new culture or people completely foreign to their own. The difference for these missionaries is that they and their message of salvation through Jesus are often rejected. Just as Jesus promised, they are hated by all for his name’s sake (Matthew 10:22). Not only do they not belong, they are hated, persecuted, and killed. How could you possibly continue on? Again we may not know this experience, but each of us are called by God to be his ambassadors (2 Corinthians 5). We are commanded to bring the good news to our family, friends, and neighbors even if they reject us (Matthew 10:26-39). I will be the first to confess how fear of rejection has often kept me from sharing the good news. So this question is vital not just for missionaries, but for all Christians. How do we continue where we do not “belong?” Where we are rejected and hated?
Take a moment to read Romans 5:1-11. What hope does this passage offer? What promises are given? How do these relate to our question? Pen your thoughts before you continue.
Romans 5:1-11 overflows with hope for this life and the next. Christ, the Son of God, died for us. Through faith in him, we have been justified, or counted righteous, by faith. Formerly, our lives were defined by sin, rebellion, guilt, and shame. Now, we belong to him and are fully accepted. Where there was hostility, there is now peace. Where there was guilt, there is now grace. Where there was fear of judgement, we now enjoy hope of glory. His love is sure. We are his.
So how do we continue where we do not belong? How do you live in a world that rejects and hates you? We put our hope in the one who will never forsake or reject us. We look to him who proved his unconditional love for us. When the wave of “I don’t belong here” crashes in, our anchor holds firmly. We belong to God through Jesus Christ. Because we belong to him, we can not only continue, but flourish, wherever we are. Even if we are rejected or persecuted, we can rejoice in our sufferings knowing God is working in us endurance, character, and greater hope (Romans 5:3-5). Belonging to God also means belonging among his people. Even when we feel alone in this world, we belong to an eternal family made up of people from every nation and culture, all united in worship to Jesus.
Belonging to God gives us the confidence to press on in love towards those who need this gospel even when we feel like an outsider. Paul speak about how this confidence was reflected in his ministry. For though I am free from all, I have made myself a servant to all, that I might win more of them. To the Jews I became as a Jew, in order to win Jews. To those under the law I became as one under the law (though not being myself under the law) that I might win those under the law. To those outside the law I became as one outside the law (not being outside the law of God but under the law of Christ) that I might win those outside the law. To the weak I became weak, that I might win the weak. I have become all things to all people, that by all means I might save some. I do it all for the sake of the gospel, that I may share with them in its blessings. (1 Corinthians 9:19-23 ESV). When our sense of identity is no longer based on how well we fit within a group, we can confidently exist in any group. Our hope in Jesus frees us to belong anywhere.
This hope has been shared by countless men and women throughout history who carried the gospel to foreign places often risking their own lives. One of those men is John G. Paton. Paton was born in Scotland in 1824. He was called to be a missionary to the Aniwa people in New Hebrides, a small island near Australia. Two missionaries had made an attempt to reach the Aniwa in 1839 but were killed and eaten on arrival. A respected elder challenged Paton before his departure saying, “You will be eaten by cannibals!” Paton responded, “Mr. Dickson, you are advanced in years now, and your own prospect is soon to be laid in the grave, there to be eaten by worms; I confess to you, that if I can but live and die serving and honoring the Lord Jesus, it will make no difference to me whether I am eaten by Cannibals or by worms; and in the Great Day my Resurrection body will rise as fair as yours in the likeness of our risen Redeemer.” (Autobiography, 56). Paton was willing to go wherever God sent him because of his confidence in Jesus, in life and in death. Though he anticipated rejection, hatred, and possibly a brutal death, Paton and his pregnant wife, Mary, set sail for the islands in 1858.
A few months after their arrival, Mary gave birth to a son. Tragically, she became sick and died only three weeks later. Their son Peter also fell ill and died shortly after his mother. Suffering continued to burden Paton’s life on the island. As he began to minister to the Aniwa, he would constantly face threats and danger for the next four years. Yet in all these things Jesus sustained him. “Without that abiding consciousness of the presence and power of my dear Lord and Savior, nothing else in all the world could have preserved me from losing my reason and perishing miserably” (Autobiography, 117). Paton’s life and ministry is a testimony to the greatness of the hope we have in Jesus. In the places we do not “belong,” we belong securely to our God. Even in the moments of greatest isolation, God is near. One of the situations that displays this most clearly is Paton’s account of hiding in a tree while being hunted by the Aniwa. “I climbed into the tree and was left there alone in the bush. The hours I spent there live all before me as if it were but of yesterday. I heard the frequent discharging of muskets, and the yells of the Savages. Yet I sat there among the branches, as safe as in the arms of Jesus. Never, in all my sorrows, did my Lord draw nearer to me, and speak more soothingly in my soul, than when the moonlight flickered among those chestnut leaves, and the night air played on my throbbing brow, as I told all my heart to Jesus. Alone, yet not alone! If it be to glorify my God, I will not grudge to spend many nights alone in such a tree, to feel again my Savior’s spiritual presence, to enjoy His consoling fellowship.” (Autobiography, 200).
Paton’s labors continued for decades and hundreds turned to Christ. He translated the scriptures into their language, helped many renounce violence, established churches, built schools, and fought against the enslavement of Pacific Islanders. To this day, the majority of the Aniwa identify as Christians. However, the glory does not belong to John Paton. Paton himself gave the glory to God who led him, sustained him, and saved many among the Aniwa. Paton’s confidence in Jesus gave him the courage to go, to continue on, even in the worst moments. Alone, yet never alone! We share this hope. We too can belong anywhere!
Reflection Questions:
What promise or truth from Romans 5:1-11 or John Paton’s story is most encouraging to you?
Today, many Christians tend to surround themselves with other Christians. Among other believers, we feel accepted, known, and loved for who we are. How might God be calling you to step out of your comfort zone and bring the gospel to your friends, classmates, or neighbors?
Who are the individuals or groups of people in your life you find most hard to share with?
Who is one person you know that you could be praying for an opportunity to share the good news of Jesus with? Pray for them.
Take a minute to visit unreachedoftheday.org. Learn about a people group who do not currently have access to the Gospel and pray that God would raise up laborers to go no matter the cost.