For just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function,  so in Christ we, though many, form one body, and each member belongs to all the others. Romans 12:4-5 (NIV)

A PLACE TO BELONG

My windshield wipers went back and forth, back and forth, clearing the raindrops from my view. The rain outside on this March Sunday matched the sorrow I felt and the tears running down my cheeks. I drove past the church I had attended–with my husband–for most of our married life. But things had changed; I was alone now in my widowhood and as much as I loved the church where we had once walked down the aisle, I no longer felt I fit. 

I needed to find a place where I DID fit, where I was not seen as half of a couple, but as a whole person. And a place where my adult autistic son would not be overwhelmed by the sensory overload of large screens with flashing lights and loud bands.

The need to find a place to belong is a basic human need, first theorized in Maslov in 1943. But it existed long before modern times. A brief glimpse at the Gospels will show us that the need to find a place to fit in, a place to belong, is universal. In Deutoronomy 26-27 we read that the people worshipped together as a community. Holy Days such as Passover were shared with others (Exodus 12:13). But since Ron’s death, I had spent most Sundays sitting alone in the church I had once thought of as home. 

JESUS’ COMPANIONS

I think Jesus Himself knew a thing or two about being on the outside looking in . We need only to look at those He chose as his close companions—several common fishermen, a Zealot, a tax collector, and a thief—to know that Jesus was not hanging out with the Beautiful People. As He left Earth for Heaven, He desired for there to be “unity of the Spirit in the bonds of peace” (Ephesians 4:3).

Operating on nothing more than a casual comment my husband  made whenever we would drive down Philadelphia Pike and pass The Church of the Atonement, I pulled into the parking lot that Sunday morning a year ago. Ron’s words, “That looks like a nice church” echoed in my mind. I parked my car, wiped my tears, took a deep breath, and walked into the warm embrace of the people of Atonement. The stained glass windows were reminiscent of the Methodist Church my brother and I had attended with my grandmother as children.  The peaceful atmosphere of the building allowed me to believe that my son, too, would feel at peace here. In the people I met that day, Pastor Amy among them, I felt the tangible presence of Christ. 

I knew I had found a new home and a new place to serve Jesus.

GET CONNECTED

How about you? Being connected  to the church–which is the people, not the building–is not always easy. The Book of Acts is full of challenges that faced the early church: changes in leadership (Acts 1:19), immorality (Acts 5:1-10), complaints (Act 6:1), false teaching (Acts 15:1), and diversity (I Thessalonians 19:11). 

But it is through the connections with one another that we are better able to serve and “Continue to meet and to encourage” one another (Hebrews 10:25). 

Where can you use your particular gift from God to serve others (I Corinthians 12:12)? I am pretty sure there is a place here for you at the Church of the Atonement! Come find your own place.