{"id":143,"date":"2006-04-17T21:36:07","date_gmt":"2006-04-18T03:36:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/songofjoy.ca\/?p=144"},"modified":"2006-04-17T21:36:07","modified_gmt":"2006-04-18T03:36:07","slug":"sense-of-belonging","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/songofjoy.ca\/?p=143","title":{"rendered":"Sense of belonging"},"content":{"rendered":"

There’s been a struggle going on inside me for a while.\u00c2\u00a0 Yesterday, I think I started understanding why.\u00c2\u00a0 It has to do with my sense of belonging.\u00c2\u00a0 I believe ever person is born with a desire to be accepted, to belong, to have worth.\u00c2\u00a0 As a friend of mine<\/a> was saying in church yesterday, we try to fill that ‘need’\u00c2\u00a0with all sorts of things (things that are not God filling the need).<\/p>\n

I remember\u00c2\u00a0in high school I had a great desire to ‘belong’, in particular to a\u00c2\u00a0group of church friends.\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0They had all grown up going to the same church.\u00c2\u00a0 I hadn’t.\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0They came from a different family background than mine.\u00c2\u00a0 Even though I hung out with them, I never felt as if I truly belonged.<\/p>\n

The church I attend on Sunday mornings was the first church where I really felt like I belonged.\u00c2\u00a0 I was there from the beginnings.\u00c2\u00a0 I felt I had something meaningful to contribute to this group.\u00c2\u00a0 I felt ‘worth something’.\u00c2\u00a0 As good as that may be, I realized yesterday that my sense of belonging did not come from God.\u00c2\u00a0 It came from being part of a group of people with a common vision.<\/p>\n

Over the past months, my ‘vision’ has been shifting.\u00c2\u00a0 I don’t see things the same as I did before.\u00c2\u00a0 That ‘shift’ has left me with a very uncomfortable feeling.\u00c2\u00a0 I don’t feel so much as if I ‘belong’ anymore and because of that, my\u00c2\u00a0self-worth has been taking a beating.\u00c2\u00a0 Why?\u00c2\u00a0 Because I have yet to find my sense of belonging and worth in God.<\/p>\n

It’s actually a comforting thought.\u00c2\u00a0 Finally, I’m beginning to understand why I’ve been struggling so much.\u00c2\u00a0 And I know things will be much better once I find my sense of belonging and self-worth in God.\u00c2\u00a0 Because then it will be solid and I won’t be ‘tossed back and forth by the waves’ in this area of my life.\u00c2\u00a0 God is good.\u00c2\u00a0 And He is faithful.\u00c2\u00a0 I know He will accomplish what He has set out to do in my life.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There’s been a struggle going on inside me for a while.\u00c2\u00a0 Yesterday, I think I started understanding why.\u00c2\u00a0 It has to do with my sense […] Read More<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,9],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/songofjoy.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/143"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/songofjoy.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/songofjoy.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/songofjoy.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/songofjoy.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=143"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/songofjoy.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/143\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/songofjoy.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=143"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/songofjoy.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=143"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/songofjoy.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=143"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}