Sense of Belonging: Sharing Life

In our most recent blog we ended with this:

Is there more to understanding or knowing this “sense of belonging” than going to church or paying dues at the country club? The truest forms of love, which are (when it remains a true friendship based in love and grace) and true friendship, all seem to share a few common elements:   

1.   Knowing (= truly seeing and being seen). You can’t “belong” (with/or to someone in the relational sense) if you don’t know them and aren’t known by them.

2.   Loving/Accepting (= affirming, valuing, celebrating, inviting, including, etc.).    

3.   Sharing life.    

Let’s talk about Sharing Life

3.   Sharing life.    

If someone really knows you and even accepts you as you are but doesn’t “share their life” with you, then there’s no belonging either. To belong is to “participate in” the life of another and have that person participate in your life. Sharing life is sharing the truth about our histories, struggles, victories, dreams, fears, hopes, desires, values — everything.   

When you have THAT with a person, you BELONG.   

In essence, it can be said of belonging that if it can be broken down into some kind of intellectual understanding, its purest forms must embody these components: knowing, loving, accepting, and sharing.

We may be able to add one additional component. I’ll call it movement. At any given time in your life, you will be dependent on those to whom you belong to provide these qualities. Some of those times your needs will be very great. But things move and change in every person’s life. There will be times when you will be the provider of these qualities to those who belong to you. More than likely, you’re already aware of this. Depending on your stage in life, you may have been through this kind of movement several times.    

We have works to do and we’re going to need faith to do them!  

**(See earlier blogs for more on God’s plan for you or buy the book “From Here …By Faith”)