Insiders And Outsiders

Every knee will bend to me, and every tongue will declare allegiance to me.

As I stood along the back wall of a tiny, one-room church near Fier, Albania, the Albanian words of a faintly familiar worship song swelled to fill the entire space. The English words tickled along the edges of my memory while ultimately remaining elusive.

As the congregation sang (and I hummed), I felt the living God among us, just as I do back home. His presence filled that space just as it’s filled the sanctuary of my home church or filled hospital rooms, conference rooms, and courtrooms—all places I’ve invited God to walk alongside me and loved ones.

God stands apart from humanity, and his unchanging, unconditional love for his people exists outside of differences in language or culture. Those were my thoughts as my early morning flight lifted off Albanian soil, carrying me back across an ocean to worship songs whose words I understand. It was a lot to process.

In the weeks following that Albania trip, I had to repent of a weirdly unrecognized, ridiculous assumption that God speaks English as his primary language. Of course, he doesn’t. But, at some point, I’d subconsciously defaulted to a belief that God is like me. The problem in thinking that way—besides being unbelievably arrogant and wrong—is that it makes me an “insider” while believers from other cultures and places are “outsiders.” When we play the insider/outsider game with God, we are tempted to believe that we “insiders” have just the teeny-tiniest bit more of God’s love than everyone else, and that is incredibly dangerous territory upon which to tread.

This insider/outsider game is an insidious tendency of human nature found in preschools, workplaces, and church denominations. We must stomp it out wherever we find it, especially when it comes to how we look at fellow brothers and sisters in Christ. We are all “outsiders” conforming to God’s culture as set forth in Scripture. It requires bending our knees, giving our allegiance, and there is no room for arrogant pride or the secret belief that we are one iota more loved than believers anywhere else in the world.

While it’s humbling to confess to unconsciously thinking that God is like me, I’m grateful for a fresh start.

Julie

Today’s Act of Gratitude

In what ways might you be playing a spiritual insider/outsider game? Who do you consider an “outsider”? Repent.