Hidden Dangers Fueling Hate that You can Solve with Belonging

I confess, I love airports and hotels.

Here’s why.

I’ve always struggled to feel as though I belong. My soul is pockmarked from feeling, as a youth, I didn’t belong in my family, school, or community.

So, I love airports and hotels because everyone there knows for sure they belong.

A room key. A boarding pass. And voilà! Instant belonging.

Silly, I know, but that’s how much I enjoy belonging.

You’re no different.

God created every human with an intense desire to belong because there is a place for us, and He wants us to seek it.

My youth was saved by the loving Jesus-followers at the local Baptist church.

Even when I annoyed them, barraged them with questions, needed rides, went through awkward stages, or challenged traditions. I belonged. Because I belonged to Jesus.

Understanding that every person is hard-wired to desire belonging helps make sense of many wrong roads and much organized evil.

Young men crave belonging.

When they don’t find it in healthy places—they’re susceptible to nefarious groups.

Hate groups, gangs, Internet terrorist organizations, agenda-laden lost souls, shadow clubs meeting in dark chat rooms or moderated platforms offer belonging, companionship, and the illusion of purpose. Even as they destroy lives.

They provide challenges, tests, and rituals that become the room keys and boarding passes these young men seek to earn the belonging they yearn to experience.

Young women crave belonging.

When they don’t find it in healthy places—they’re susceptible to traffickers, abusers, advertisers, and self-remedies that lead to destructive tunnels of ever-cycling pain.

Adults crave belonging.

When we don’t find it in healthy places, we’re susceptible to divisions or strict delineations according to physical, ethnic, economic, political, or thought standards. We define through difference and create hardened lines that become idols because they create a sense of belonging.

Here’s where we come in.

You and I, Jesus-followers who know God and His Word, WE KNOW WHERE PEOPLE FIND BELONGING.

We know there is a family they were designed to join.

— a feast and a seat at the table for them.

— a place, a purpose, a people just waiting.

—They belong, and we hold the key—the gospel of Jesus Christ.

When we invite them into the family of faith and don’t water it down but present it with all the truth, challenge, purpose, and power inherent in the Jesus-following life—they escape the matrix of division and hate.

Into unity.

—community.

—reconciliation with God and others.

—relationship with the God who created them and knows everything they were designed to be.

No longer haters—loners— shooters— cutters— discriminators— terrorists—sex slaves—disengaged—gang-bangers— oppressors— dictators— power-seeking, suit-wearing thugs.

We have the power in Christ to make a difference. To let the Chosen know that they are-chosen.

One traveler at a time.

One person seeking belonging wondering where it waits.

One individual looking for their place tag at the great feast.

We know the way.

And the light grows every time one finds it.

Hidden Dangers Fueling Hate that You can Solve with Belonging – https://t.co/gkIi6btFZY Wondering where you belong? I know. #amwriting #Faith

— Lori Roeleveld (@lorisroeleveld) October 5, 2022