158: Take Your Belonging With You
I’m standing on the Terminal 8 AirTrain platform at JFK International Airport just outside New York City. I made my way over from Terminal 4 and now wait to meet two friends whose flights landed just a few minutes ago. Together, we will take the train to Long Island, meet up with more friends, and enjoy the next few days in each others’ company.
For now, as I wait, I watch. More specifically, I people-watch. I notice the locals who clearly know what they’re doing and where they’re going. At the same time, I also see uncertainty etched on so many faces as they do their best to read the signs and find their way. I admire the airport employee, who offers direction and answers questions with patience and kindness and care.
As I wait and as I watch, I also listen. I overhear different one-sided phone calls, as people update their loved ones or work colleagues about ETAs and travel arrangements. I eavesdrop on several groups of friends and family anticipating their plans in the city—shows and museums and restaurants galore. I learn little snippets of peoples’ life stories as strangers strike up conversation with one another to pass the time.
And, over and over again, I hear the same prerecorded announcement. It lets people know which train is arriving and where its headed; it reminds them to stand clear of the doors; and it concludes each message with this little refrain:
Please take your belonging with you
At first, I think I’ve misheard. Isn’t the phrase usually plural? As in, “Please take your belongingS with you?” As in, please make sure you have your bags, your phone, your jacket, all of your possessions in hand before you head out?
As I continue to stand on the platform and listen several more times, sure enough, the word “belonging” remains singular. Please take your belonging with you. My inner grammar nerd is bothered; and yet, something else within me can’t help but notice a deeper invitation. Here’s what I mean:
In my own life, belonging tends to be something I perceive as outside of me. It is something I search for, something I try to find “out there." And I look for it in all sorts of places and spaces and communities and groups. For instance, I seek belonging in my family, my church, my city, different social circles and friend groups, the list goes on. Even the gym where I exercise has a huge sign above the entrance that screams, “You belong!” Well, wonderful! What does that even mean?
Belonging is difficult to define; it’s a big concept, and there are plenty of nuanced layers and levels and lenses to consider. Though there will always be more to say, on the surface, I think of belonging as acceptance, inclusion, the feeling of being at home. If I dig a little deeper, I find I long to belong because, when I do, my most authentic self is safe and secure.
My wise friend, Renee Davis Meyer, who writes beautifully and regularly about belonging, recently put it this way:
Belonging is…”the strong inner sense that who I am is wanted, cherished and enough, right now today, as I am. Belonging is knowing there is a place in the world where you fit and are welcomed home as your true, no-pretending-needed self.”
Yes, indeed.
The deeper I go, the more I come to see the ways belonging and identity as very much intertwined. It seems to me that belonging not only helps to shape my identity; it is a part of it. And if belonging is a part of who I am, then I wonder if belonging isn’t somewhere “out there,” but always right here, deep down within. While belonging is not something tangible we hold in our hands, maybe it is still something we possess; something we take with us everywhere we go.
So often, though, it is something I forget. Even though belonging is my birthright, I live like I’ve left it behind. I swerve and scramble, trying to fit in, impress, compete, succeed. I grow anxious and frazzled, bitter and distressed, searching and grasping for something that’s already mine. Maybe you can relate?
One thing I’m learning is that our belonging is something we sometimes forget, and something we would do well to remember.
So, what does it mean to take our belonging with us? To remember the God-given reality of who we already are—beloved and beheld by God?
It might be helpful to rewind a bit. In our last episode, I read from Psalm 84. I mentioned that this psalm is known as a pilgrimage psalm, because God’s people would often sing it while traveling to worship God in the Temple. It was on the summer roadtrip playlist, if you will. They would pack up their tangible belongings and make the journey to Jerusalem. The Temple there was God’s dwelling place, and Psalm 84 expressed the people’s longing to be there in God’s presence. I can’t know for sure, but I do wonder if they longed to be in God’s presence because in God’s presence, they were at home. Just like today, maybe their inherent belonging was easy to forget, easy to leave behind. And that space where they experienced God’s presence was where they most fully remembered they belonged to God.
Fast forward many centuries later, and God would do a new thing; God would choose to dwell within God’s people. The Word Made Flesh would dwell among them and make a way for God’s Spirit to live within them. Meaning traveling far and wide to seek God’s presence would no longer be required. Because God’s presence was right there within, a permanent reminder of their inherent belonging.
Now, of course. there are still sacred spaces and thin places where we experience the presence of God in profound ways. Visiting those spaces and places can be a significant spiritual practice, and we’ll talk more about that in an upcoming episode. And…
The good news is, that permanent reminder of our inherent belonging remains. God makes God’s home within us today, too. As Paul reminds us in 1 Corinthians 3 and 1 Corinthians 6, all of us and each of us are now God’s temple, God’s dwelling place. And so, through God’s Spirit within us, we are better equipped to remember that our belonging is not something we have to seek or search for “out there;” our belonging is something we already possess right here; and since it’s a part of us, it’s also something we can take with us.
So, on a very practical level, what might it look like to take your belonging with you?
Well, it might begin by intentionally filling your life with regular, consistent rhythms that remind you of it. In what circumstances are you most aware of God’s presence and in what ways does God’s presence point you back to your belonging?
As you consider those questions, you might find it helpful to go back and listen to past remind{h}ers like remind{h}er 56: What Helps You Remember?, remind{h}ers 75 and 76: both part of Hold On to Who You Are, and remind{h}er 106: Tune In. I will link to all of these episodes in the show notes for easy access.
You might also consider literally taking something with you throughout your day that represents and reminds you of your belonging. It could be a written prayer, a breath prayer, a picture or a painting, a memorized verse or passage from Scripture, or maybe even something small you can actually hold in your hands and keep in your purse or pocket.
There are so many ways to remember our belonging. And it’s important that we do. Because when we remember we belong to God, with God’s help,
We can walk into a room with nothing to prove.
We can learn from someone different than us.
We can be slow to take offense.
We can admit when we’re wrong.
We can lead with a listening ear.
We can pray for our enemies.
We can shine the spotlight on someone else.
We can extend compassion, grace, and care in the world around us. And maybe even to ourselves.
When we remember we belong to God, we can move through the world steady, safe, and secure as we follow God’s lead and seek Christ’s way.
Today, remember to take your belonging with you. Wherever you go. Whomever you meet. With God’s help, may we seek to remind each other of our inherent belonging as, together, we continue to become the people God calls and invites us to be.