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Sabbath Devotional :: Belonging
I was listening to an episode of a podcast recently and they were discussing the topic of belonging in that particular episode. One of the podcast hosts remarked that the experience of feeling left out was the “shadow side” of having community or wanting to be a part of a community. This description really resonated with me and made a lot of sense in understanding a universal human emotion. As the podcast hosts and guests discussed this topic they noted the distinctions between belonging versus fitting in. They articulated that fitting in is when we change things about ourselves in order to try to fit in with the people around…
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Sabbath Devotional :: Belonging and Believing
Something I catch myself thinking a lot is, “How can anyone believe _____??!!” And especially, “How can any of my family, my friends believe ______??!!” I see the inverse on social media sometimes: “If you believe ___, unfriend/unfollow me because I don’t want to know you.” It is so satisfying and so tempting to think there is a set of righteous beliefs and we should only associate with others who have them. Unfortunately, I do not believe Christians or Latter-day Saints can afford to indulge in this kind of ideological purity testing for the people to whom we are willing to extend love. It’s true that there are abhorrent beliefs,…