Strangers

I love Peter's salutation.

"To God's elect
strangers in the world,
scattered...
who have been chosen..." 1 Peter 1:1,2

Sometimes there are things I can't wrap my head around things that happen in life.
Too foreign, or at least too painful, to understand.
The things people do to each other.
That we do, and say, and think.
I can't always find a place to park that and I have to let it go.

In Chapter 2 of Blue Like Jazz, Donald Miller says "The soul was not designed for this."

In an interesting series of events, I gained a snippet of insight the other day.  I heard a sermon about the soul's need for connectedness in community.  How belonging heals the frayed edges inflicted by loneliness, disconnectedness, and woundedness. And yet...sometimes it is this very same community that causes the pain. Therein lie those bits I find hard to reconcile.

In vs 17 Peter encourages us to live our lives as strangers....People temporarily residing on earth but bound for a home in heaven. Not of the world. Not belonging to it.

He goes on to remind us to set our Hope fully on God's Grace. and to love one another deeply, from the heart. (vs 13& 22)

"...live in harmony, sympathetic, compassionate, and humble.
Repay evil and insult with blessing.
And to this you were called." 1 Peter 3:9

Love like you don't belong because it will set you free.

The song says it so well: The Beautiful Letdown. Switchfoot.