Once upon a time there was a girl. She was just an ordinary girl, living an ordinary life. She graduated from high school with honors and a list of extra-curriculars to her name. She was student body president, and her family was well respected in the community. As was expected she went to the college her parents had gone too. But something started wrestling with her soul.
You don't belong here.
Truth was: she didn't, but she didn't know why.
She transferred to a larger university, hoping to get lost in the crowd and not be in a place where everyone knew everything about her. She wanted to be anonymous. She wanted to blend in. She wanted to be like everyone else. Despite her best efforts though, the voice rang in her head again…
You don't belong here.
She kept trying to belong, but everywhere she looked, she didn't. Her clothes were too bright, her mind was other places, she started longing for something bigger, something…extraordinary.
Everyone around her knew exactly what they wanted. To be a nurse. To be an actress. To be a teacher. Step by step they were walking towards their goal. She, however, was caught in a trap of indecisiveness. Satan was holding her hand. He was trying to keep her thinking that she could be like everyone else there. If she stayed around long enough she would figure out. She could have the same dreams.
Yes! She could be a nurse, or actress, or teacher! She could be whatever she wanted to be!
But, you don't belong here.
And like the sun breaking through the clouds, like a lamp illuminating the room, she started to realize it too.
I don't belong here.
And one night while she was sitting in a cabin, seeking God's will for her life she heard a still small voice, the same that came to Elijah in 1 Kings 19:11-13:
Then He said, "Go out, and stand on the mountain before the LORD." And behold, the LORD passed by, and a great and strong wind tore into the mountains and broke the rocks in pieces before the LORD,
but the LORD was not in the wind;
and after the wind an earthquake,
but the LORD was not in the earthquake;
and after the earthquake a fire,
but the LORD was not in the fire;
and after the fire a still small voice.
So it was, when Elijah heard it, that he wrapped his face in his mantle an went out and stood in the entrance of the cave. Suddenly a voice came to him and said,
"What are you doing here, Elijah?"
Except to me, the voice said something like this:
"What are you doing here, Megan? I want you to go and make disciples of all nations. Yes, become utterly obsessed with me. Don't follow the road that's been set out before you. Follow my path. I will lead you in the way everlasting, and lo, I am with you always beloved."
She started on an adventure that made her feel alive. It brought her joy. It brought her peace. And then one day she decided to write a blog telling people about how great her God is to bring her on a journey of a lifetime. A journey that would change her life. That would make her to realize that all those years when she felt like she didn't belong, it was because she didn't. She was made to actually go into the world. To taste it, to touch it, to feel it. To have her heart broken by actual people whom she actually met, in actual countries outside of her own. To see miracles happen, to heal people, to comfort the afflicted. She was made to make a difference, if not on the whole world, but to one person, to one village, maybe to one country.
She started to realize that her life was much bigger than herself and God had actually chosen the least of these, a sinner of the worst herself to do His Kingdom work.
And then she started to realize something even bigger than that. When God was whispering to her:
You don't belong here.
He meant it in more ways than she knew.
God has set us apart from this world. He has created us to be His hands and feet and to bring His Good News to all the earth. We have been set apart to live in this world but not of this world. I believe His desire is to see us bringing the Kingdom of Heaven down to earth daily, in every way we possibly can. And praise be to God His grace covers us when we have bad days and don't feel like being all that He wants us to be. Trust me, I am the worst at this. But I'm reminded daily that Jesus came for that very reason.
I can't comprehend His love, I can't comprehend His plan, I can't comprehend this journey He's taking me on.
But I'm comforted in knowing this is exactly what God made me for, and that when I have hard days and bad days and the world gets in my face, I'm reminded:
I don't belong here.
And the Good News is, you don't either. And God has a pretty awesome story for all of us. That's why He came to redeem us. To give us life abundantly.
10 The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.
This is what my abundant life looks like. What about yours?
