Does the wish to “fit in” tell something about ourselves?

When I changed schools in the seventh grade I felt awkward in unfamiliar territory and extremely vulnerable. Entering a strange environment with different surroundings and new people challenges us to find a means for acceptance. Why do we do that? Is it because we seek ways to be comfortable or do we suspect who we are might not be acceptable?

Everyone wants to fit in somewhere or accepted by someone. Desiring to belong brings people to despair when it can’t be found. The well known and famous commit suicide or wish to die because being popular, recognized, power and wealth are not enough.

Needing to belong, being accepted, and loved are universal desires. Are they wrong wants, or are we looking in the wrong place to find them? We probe for significance in areas we think they should be, and when we don’t see them there, we become disillusioned with life.

Jesus told Nicodemus he must be born again. He responded in bewilderment at the possibility. Because we believe this world is all there is, we keep trying to make it work. People don’t realize this world is not home. We’re birthed into this world accepting it as truth and reality. Born again means a new way of understanding; a new way to live. God’s approach is opposite of the world’s reasoning.

God accepts everyone who comes to Him. We belong to the family of the King, and we see ourselves as precious in His eyes. The shock comes when realizing we don’t fit into THIS world anymore. True comfort lay in the hands of Jesus. A whole new world, an extraordinary reality. One that doesn’t stop here but fills us with love and life forever in a new world.

Psalm 145:18
The Lord is near to all who call on him, to all who call on him in truth.

Psalm 24:1
The earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof, the world and those who dwell therein,

John 3:3
Jesus answered him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.”