Outsiders

There are times that you're in church and everything just fits. You're connected to the worship, you're engaged with the sermons and the congregation is like family you want to be around. You feel God's presence, you're convicted, challenged and encouraged each week and you are serving in a ministry you really care about.

Getting discouraged because I'm not describing your church experience? Well don't, most people only have this type of experience once in a great while.

I've said this on here before and I'll say it again. Churches aren't perfect. They're made up of sinful people. Those sinful people, being imperfect themselves, cannot make a perfect church. There's always going to be problems there.

There are mountaintops in our spiritual lives where we feel connected and happy and things are going well but there's also valleys. When you're in the bottom of a valley it's easy to look around and think you're the only one there.

Last week while visiting church with a friend I met a woman who didn't get married until she was in her late thirties. She's been married for four years now but she and her husband don't have any children. She shared her heart with me and talked about how hard it can be inside the church as a single person or even as married woman without kids.

The church puts such an emphasis on marriage and families. There are series taught about making your marriage stronger. Series about raising kids in a sin-obsessed world. Entire series about how to be a good wife or husband or mother or father. Do you ever hear a series about being in your late twenties or thirties, even forties and still being single? If you're in luck then you might hear a short speech once every three years about how it's okay to be single because God still has a plan for you.

I don't want to make this sound sarcastic because it's not something I take lightly. I understand that pastors don't preach about living a single life because most people don't. That doesn't mean it's not a valid way of life but it's not the point we're talking about today.

The point is that there are always times that we feel like an outsider, even in church. Sometimes, especially in church. Maybe it's because you're single, maybe it's because you're married but don't have kids. Maybe it's because your kids have walked away from the Lord. Or maybe because your spouse has.

Whatever the reason there are always going to be times that we feel like an outsider in our own church. The best thing you can do is realize that everyone has those times but it doesn't matter if you feel like an outsider in the church or not. When you accept Jesus Christ as your Savior you're never an outsider, you're a child of the King.