Week 49: Alienated
Weekly Chapters:
II Corinthians 5 -
Philippians 4
Passage of the Week:
Ephesians 2:12 & 4:18
Adjective:
To make different or hostile
To cause to be withdrawn
To turn away
Thesaurus:
Disaffected
Divided
Estranged
Withdraw Affection
Separated
Turned off
Divorced
Weened
Father God,
Look over us this week as we dive into Your word. Give us a heart for learning and a mind full of openness. As we understand feelings of alienation, give us guidance and understanding.
Amen
Authentic vulnerability:
When I look over the synonyms for alienation, I understand them so well.
I have both felt alienation and have inflicted feelings of alienation on others. I consider withdrawal of affection an act of alienation.
I know that I had withdrawn affection from my husband as my way of punishment when I was angry with him. I see it as my way of pulling him into my way of thinking or because he did something I did not like or condone.
Since my husband's stroke, the alienation is different; it is because my feelings have changed. The more I feel like a caretaker, the less I feel like a wife. In sickness and in health is turned into only in sickness. When I expected my time as a caretaker to my children to be over, I became a caretaker to my husband. The alienation is not his fault, yet I still do it.
What is your Authentic Truth?
Study:
Through his Son Christ Jesus, God's desire in our lives is to include everyone and reconcile or bring them to Christ. In II Corinthians 5:18-20, Paul says that we can now come together in true inclusion across previous divides between Jew and Gentile, slave and free, man and woman because of God's gift of his Son. We are to come together regardless of race, gender, cultural and economic differences (Galatians 3:28). We are all one under Christ.
God desires that we do not alienate and instead include everyone. We are to extend a helping hand to all our brothers and sisters in Christ as none of us are more important than another (Galatians 6:1-3).
1 Dear brothers and sisters, if another believer is overcome by some sin, you who are godly should gently and humbly help that person back onto the right path. And be careful not to fall into the same temptation yourself. 2 Share each other’s burdens, and in this way obey the law of Christ. 3 If you think you are too important to help someone, you are only fooling yourself. You are not that important. Galatians 6:1-3
We are all one new people (Ephesians 2:11-18). All efforts to divide and separate were eliminated in favor of unity in Christ (Ephesians 4:1-16).
So why do we sometimes feel alienated when we go to church? Why do we feel not a part of the popular group or the clique? As the body of Christ, we are all one.
Many prior Christians or Christians who no longer go to church echo the same feeling: alienation at church.
How can people feel so much more welcome in a bar with non-believers than they do at church? Why do our brothers and sisters in Christ feel like outsiders rather than brothers and sisters? We see those who are not like us (homeless, non-English speaking, another skin color as example) who come to our church, and we feel uncomfortable or uncertain rather than welcoming. Our visiting sisters and brothers in Christ receive stares rather than open arms.
How do we instead show our love so that newcomers do not feel alienated? Love like Jesus loved, embrace others who are different than us. Physically embrace them if they let us, but no person should feel outside our family in Christ. We should get out of our comfort zone, remove our reservations and love one another.
Father God,
Thank You for opening my eyes to my alienating behavior. Teach me to love as You love. Please give me the strength to reach out to others and step over and outside my introverted tendencies to make others feel welcome instead of alienated.
Amen.
Homework:
Think of someone in your church family or network of friends who may feel like an outsider and find a way to make them feel welcome
Make them a gift
Write them a note
Tell them how important they are
Step out of your comfort zone and go into an opposite area where you generally understand how being alienated feels.
When you go outside of your comfort zone, talk to people in the location and seek to understand their perspectives to expand your knowledge and love.
