Not Fitting In…

I have been on the outside looking in most of my life. Being an outsider means that you are not part of a particular group. 

Have you ever felt like a stranger, or as if you just didn’t fit in somewhere? Maybe it was at school, on a team, with a group of friends, church environments, in a public place or even in your own home?

If so, what was it that made you feel different? Was it your race or ethnicity? Maybe it was it your economic status, political views, religious beliefs, nationality or language? Perhaps it was something else entirely?

What was that experience like for you?

You know, when you’re at a party and everyone seems to be speaking a language you don’t quite understand, or when your interests make people give you that head tilt of confusion? Yeah, that has been me.

Being an outsider often gets a bad rap. If you learn to love the “skin you are in”, you will be just fine!

Some of the most groundbreaking, creative, and instrumental people in history were outsiders who saw the world in a different way.

Instead of trying to force yourself into spaces that feel too small, just be you and see what GOD does with that security.

What if you and I explored how being on the periphery can be a GOOD thing. Call it a benefit that GOD will not waste.

This is about recognizing that your unique strength will always position you to give away  perspectives no one else is conditioned to see, and the abilities that the inside crowd might never develop.

Just be you! I have learned to do that. I am learning to do that.

The LORD has been ever faithful to use the ‘me’ that He made so fearfully and wonderfully, that I see who I am as a gift and the “skin I am in” is well suited for loving the people around me in ways that no one else is capable of.