Called to Belong
Three of Four in the Called series
You Are Not Alone
This past Sunday Savannah shared about belonging. Not belonging as attendance or agreement, but belonging as covenant. As being known and held by God and His people.
We’ve been walking through this series on calling: to be with God, to become like Him, and now, to belong. It’s easy to treat calling like something private, something between you and God alone. But Savannah reminded us that every true calling is also shared. The voice that calls us upward also calls us together.
She began with a simple phrase:
“You are not alone.”
Those words carried in two directions.
First to those walking through pain, loneliness, or loss. She didn’t tell anyone to cheer up or try harder. She thanked them for coming. For showing up even when life feels heavy. For choosing to be part of worship when silence might be easier. “You make the body of Christ better for being here,” she said.
That echoes the voice of Jesus and Paul. Whose invitation is to come as we are and not to forsake gathering together, as so many have.
Then she turned toward those in steadier seasons. The ones finding purpose, or peace, or rhythm. She reminded us that independence is not the goal. That there is no version of faith where we stop needing people. Following Jesus will always pull us back into relationship. Into community. Into the messy beauty of belonging.
She shared a story about something called “lifestyle creep,” the way our spending rises with our income until we never actually have more to give. And she wondered if we do the same thing spiritually. How often we wait for a better time to serve, to invite, to open our homes. How we tell ourselves that once life calms down, then we’ll be generous. But the call of Jesus is always present tense. It’s not for when things slow down. It’s for now.
Savannah painted pictures of what belonging could look like. A meal shared across a cluttered table. A friend who drops in just to listen. A game played for laughter’s sake. A mission trip or a simple act of service that costs something but fills the soul.
Meals, play, and mission.
The Kingdom of God always turns the simple sacred.
Before communion, she invited us to pray a quiet question:
“Lord, what is the next step of obedience you have for me in being called to the body of Christ?”
Maybe belonging isn’t something we wait to feel.
Maybe it’s something we choose to do.
And as we participate in it, we receive it too.
Because when we gather—around tables, at the altar, in the ordinary rhythm of shared life—Christ is among us. And in that simple presence, we remember again:
We are not alone.
Thanks for reading.
—Samuel