Wednesday, June 1, 2011

Left Out or Left In?

You walk into your church or school, or any other social meeting place, and there they are. You see that person sitting/standing by themselves-alone. It's not like this is the first time you've seen that person alone because they are always there at the same time and place that you are. Apparently, you and the other person have the same ideal hang out place in mind. You've tried to talk to this person, and usually this person is very social and enjoys talking with others; but maybe you wouldn't know that because hardly anyone talks to this person. In fact, it would be a stretch to say that this person has many close friends at all. This person has some close friends, but many don't know them beyond surface level. Only a handful of friends know this person beyond the surface.
Those that know this person on a surface level only know a few things about this person:
1) they're favorite color is yellow
2) they have 1 dog and 4 cats
3) they like to collect super-hero action figures.

Those that know this person beyond the surface level know something more:
1) This person gives their time, talent, energy to school, 2 ministries within the church, a summer missions trip (has been for the past 8 years)
2) This person is mostly reaching out to others in making the effort to have people over and talk to people
3) This person wonders why do they always have to be the ones reaching out and why isn't hardly anyone reaching out to them?
4) It's not that this person doesn't have many friends, it's just hardly anyone is reaching out to them.


Is this person being left-out?, you wonder? It would seem that way, yes. But there's a bigger concept here than feeling left out. Have you ever felt left-out?

This past weekend i was at a church in WV. I heard an awesome message and one of the points in the message was this:
God will NOT leave me out. Better yet, He calls me TO Himself- He gathers me with the believers.
I was greatly encouraged by this point. It's not that many times i feel left out, it's just what i said above in the 2nd set of facts. (the 4 facts).
It's just so good to know that God INCLUDES me in His plan and that He does NOT cast me to the side. So just when you're beginning to think that you're left-out, just remember that Jesus INCLUDES YOU, so actually you are Left-In and not left-out.