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We live during an epidemic of loneliness. Too few of us experience the joy of “clicking” with another person, hearing them “speak our language,” connecting over shared struggles or joys, and moving with the confidence that empowers us to bless the world. When we are constantly trying to get our own needs for connection met, we are much less attentive to our neighbor’s needs. Because we follow a God who is incarnate – embodied in human flesh – when we can’t find others who connect with us spiritually as well as socially, we may experience God as distant or disinterested too.
Yet God is as close as the person willing to be vulnerable and honest. Or the person ready to critique and brainstorm new possibilities. Or the person poised to give up, but in a posture from which they could stand up instead, with the help of a Holy Spirit-breathed gust of wind. Cultivating belonging means listening for the loss and hurt, even inviting others to speak aloud those things that might make us defensive, and regulating our own responses so we do not shut them down.
This message is excerpted from “Speaking my language” by Lee Ann M. Pomrenke in the May/June 2023 Gather magazine.