Displaced

Have you ever felt that in life you are on the outside looking in? You have this uncomfortable feeling that you do not belong or fit in? You feel like the third person in a novel watching the active participants act out the plot line of the story.

As you are watching, you may wonder how you got to this particular place in your life? How did I end up in this situation? How did I end up in this Job? How did I end up with this dysfunctional family? The list goes on.

The longer you think about it, you realize as you watch the plot unfold that you may not want to be on the inside anyway. Then you think you want out, but you heard what you were just thinking that you do not feel part of the situation. That seems contradictory and slightly crazy. So, what you are really saying is . . .

“I want to get out of being out of?”

So, how do you get out of something you do not feel you are in to begin with?

There are many stories in the Bible about individuals who felt displaced. Individuals, who felt like a stranger in a “stranger than stranger” land. I think Jesus felt displaced all the time. In the gospel of Mark 6:1-6

“Then He went out from there and came to His own country, and His disciples followed Him. And when the Sabbath had come. He began to teach in the synagogue. And many hearing Him were astonished. saying, ‘Where did this Man get theses things? And what wisdom is this which is given to Him, that such mighty works are performed by His hands! Is this not the carpenter, the Son of Mary, and brother of James, Joses, Judas, and Simon? And are not His sisters here with us? So they were offended at Him.

But Jesus said to them. ‘A prophet is not without honor except in his own country, among his own relatives, and in his own house.’ Now He could do no mighty work there, except that He laid His hands on a few sick people and healed them. And He marveled because of their unbelief. Then He went about the villages in a circuit teaching.”

Jesus felt displaced in His own country. He was not welcomed and those that He ministered to were offended by Him. These local yokels asked in verse 3, “Is this not the carpenter, the Son of Mary, and are not His sisters here with us?” They knew His roots. Just like living in a little town in the midwest where everyone knows who you are and the soil that you are made of. In other words, “They know your dirt.”

They knew His family and they were not open to see Him in the revelation knowledge of who HE really was. In verse 6 it says, “He marveled.” Instantly, Jesus was on the outside looking in. In verse 4, Jesus basically says, “Do not look for honor in your own village, and especially in your own home.”

So … how do you get out of being out of?

In 2 Corinthians 4:8, “We are hard-pressed on every side, yet not crushed; we are perplexed, but not in despair.” It says “we were perplexed.” They must of felt like they were on the outside looking in but notice it says that they were not in despair. So how were they not in despair? In verse 13-18 of the same chapter we get the answer:

“And since we have the same spirit of faith, according to what is written, ‘I believe and therefore I spoke,’ we also believe and therefore speak, knowing that He who raised up the Lord Jesus will also raise us up with Jesus, and will present us with you. For all things are for your sakes, that grace, having spread through the many may cause thanksgiving to abound to the glory of God.

Therefore we do not lose heart. Even though our outward man is perishing, yet the inward man is being renewed day by day. For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory, while we do not look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal.”

The answer is our faith.

Believing that the same God who raised Jesus from the grave will raise you up out of your situations. Out of the places that make you marvel like Jesus did in the Gospel of Mark and also the places that make you perplexed as Paul was in 2 Corinthians. With faith of knowing that God goes before you in all situations and will bring light into your darkness.

The next time you feel displaced and feel like the third person, ask God to give you some popcorn to enjoy the show. You will know that you can rest in God because He is going before you.

Now . . . my question is, if we are all on the outside looking in, who is in the inside? And does this mean that there is really no inside information? Maybe the outside is the inside and we need to change all information to “outside information”. Could it be that outsiders are really insiders? Does that make them inside out people or outside in?

But I will let you in on a little secret. The truth be known, I think we just need to change our perspective.

Photo designed and taken by Lorraine