Monday, January 26, 2009

On the Outside


All these people were still living by faith when they died.
They did not receive the things promised;
they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance.
And they admitted that they were aliens and strangers on earth.
Hebrews 11:13
I remember moving from a small town in southern Georgia to Atlanta a month before I started seventh grade. My parents might as well have moved me to another continent. The culture shock, even back then (the mid-1970s), blew my mind and shattered my already lacking self-confidence. Atlanta was far ahead of south Georgia in many ways. I was enrolled in an affluent neighborhood school with middle to upper class students. My family was not poor, but we had no excess, just the basics ... especially compared to my peers. It was tough. To join in. To be a part of. And no matter how I tried to fit in, and who I tried to fit in with, I always felt like I was on the outside looking in. Sadly, I struggled with that until recently. No kidding.
And just how many years of bondage is that?
It wasn't until I finally realized that I really am on the outside. I really don't fit in here. This foreign land. But one day. One day I will. Because of nothing I have done or will do. But because of what has already been done. His precious blood poured out on my behalf. Some day!
“At present we are on the outside of the world,
the wrong side of the door.
We discern the freshness and purity of the morning,
but they do not make us fresh and pure.
We cannot mingle with the splendours we see.
But all the leaves of the New Testament are rustling
with the rumor that it will not always be so.
Some day, God willing, we shall get in.”
- C.S. Lewis, The Weight of Glory

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