Sitting on Pete's couch

Judges 3
1 These are the nations the LORD left to test all those Israelites who had not experienced any of the wars in Canaan 2 (he did this only to teach warfare to the descendants of the Israelites who had not had previous battle experience): 3 the five rulers of the Philistines, all the Canaanites, the Sidonians, and the Hivites living in the Lebanon mountains from Mount Baal Hermon to Lebo Hamath. 4 They were left to test the Israelites to see whether they would obey the LORD's commands, which he had given their forefathers through Moses.


Last week I was driving to Staples, had to pick up jump drive, I'd "misplaced" mine. As I entered New Jersey I drove past a rather unfortunately named Funeral Parlour, "Scarrs." This name has always made me chuckle. This was the first time in 4 years that when I drove past it that I actually saw a funeral going on; it was the funeral of a firefighter; I knew this because of the obvious presence of the uniforms and fire appliances outside the funeral home.

When I see uniformed organisations present at a funeral of one of their members, I feel an overwhelming sense of grief; everytime. I remember being at a funeral of an elderly neighbour who had been an AA, (for Americans, it's the British AAA.) There were two AA vans and four men who attended the funeral, and the sight of that made me cry; the man, Jimmy, had belonged to something.

I was bullied when I was wee, in the only place where I felt like I didn't belong, I was bullied. The girl was older than me, but much smaller, and weedier. I remember our Lynsey telling me that I should just smack her; not being a delicate child I could have knocked her out with a single blow, but I didn't, in this situation, I gave her all the power, and let her bully me. I absolutely could have knocked her into next week. I didn't belong, so I didn't want to be a part of the place where I was bullied; my answer, to not take part, retreat back, and concede defeat. (The women that raised me, (my mother, my grannies and my sister,) were not like that, I had to stick it out! It worked out in the end.)

How important is it to feel like you belong? I had this friend at camp who used to preach to me "BELONG, BELIEVE, BEHAVE". That made sense to me, when we belong, we feel part of something bigger than ourselves, so we can't screw it up on our own. When we feel like we belong, we feel safe enough to make ourselves vulnerable to share our problems and have people counsel us through the situation. When we feel like we belong, our defenses are down, and we can recharge our batteries from a world that likes to attack our every move.

I don't know if I have shared this with you before, but in Scotland we speak of our family and close friends as possessions. One of the most intimate ways we can speak of someone is to call them, ours. My mother would refer to me as "Our Mhairi" or "My Mhairi." (It's non-threatening, if you can get past the possessive nature and don't feel too like a innanimate object.) Within our corps and various other groups, how do we express our love and concern for people with out verbal and non-verbal language? Do people know our love by our actions? Would the want to belong to our corps and centres? Do we display Christ like love, or are we just a wee clique that needs a name or a family member to get us in? (I'm resisting the temptation to state that we all have a family member who got us in, and that that is the only name we need. I've decided not to say that for fear of being cheesy.)
What do you belong to? What have you allowed yourself to be vulnerable to? Or are we playing the safe game of not getting hurt? From experience, that game isn't that safe, it's as safe as sitting on Pete's couch.

Right now, as it feels like we are hopping from battle to battle, it is important that we know what we belong to. As Christians, we should know Who we belong to, and what He is about. As Christians reaching out, we should be aware of the importance of those who have not made a commitment to Him, and ensure that in all that we do, we do it in love, letting them know, they belong to us, and in turn, Him.