BELONGING

How important is it to feel you belong somewhere? It’s something I have taken for granted. I always felt that I belonged in my family growing up and now, looking back over many years, I realise how much I felt I belonged in my home town. My involvement with church, schools, clubs, family, all gave me a warm sense of belonging and helped me understand my place in the world. Friendships highlighted this, always knowing there was someone I could call on to meet for a coffee or go for a walk. Aside from the family my husband and I have nurtured together, the other most valued source of belonging has come from my Christian friendships and being a part of our local church. It was with a great deal of sadness that we recently said a formal farewell to the church we had been part of for over thirty years, as we set out on our new adventure of travelling the waterways, leaving many good friends behind. My blogging is an attempt to retain links, to feel we are still connected in some small way to our old life, so that when we return to catch up with our friends, we don’t feel totally alien. As much as I’d love to maintain one on one connections, I know this isn’t realistic, so a blog is better than no communication at all, at least from my perspective! Sometimes the blog elicits a comment from someone, so I am reassured I am not just talking to myself and that at least one reader is keeping tabs on us both!

Why should it matter? I think because I still want to feel I belong somewhere. We have chosen this lifestyle with little regret, but that doesn’t negate our need for belonging. Gradually we are learning it can come from different directions and that even cameo moments with a person can count towards where we feel our place is and what purpose we are serving. Boaters are a community in themselves and, for the most part, welcome one another as kindred spirits. There is a definite sense of being able to connect quickly with other boaters. As R often remarks, “why is it that when you arrive at a car park you never discuss the car parked next to you with its owner and yet it is second nature to readily open a conversion with the owner of the boat moored next to you”.

A further delight on our travels so far has been attending a host of different churches, being warmly welcomed, whether we have joined them for a single service, a couple of weeks, or as in one case, on and off for about six months. Invariably, people are intrigued by what we have set out to do and show interest in our boating way of life, usually relieved that they don’t have to live in a 43 x 7ft steel tube! Just the thought of the ablutions, the shopping, the washing and the damp are enough to deter people. Yet, it’s the acceptance that gives us the sense of belonging and the knowledge that they understand what we are trying to do – to bring a little bit of God’s light and love to those we meet and to share the hope that we have in the life and death of Jesus and the power of the Holy Spirit at work within us. Just this last week we found ourselves drawn to the church at Whitchurch on Thames, where we really felt the presence of God’s love. I found myself so moved by the prayers for the current situation in the middle east, that when I heard they had another prayer meeting on Tuesday, R and I went along to join them. A total cameo moment as we may well never pass that way on our boat again and yet the sense of belonging we had was palpable. I believe that wherever we worship with fellow pilgrims on our journey, we will have opportunities to belong. It reminds me of Jesus’s words to his disciples, ” If anyone will not welcome you or listen to your words, leave that home or town and shake the dust off your feet.” (Matthew 10v14).

There will be some destinations, I am sure, where we will not feel so welcome but that’s OK. For it is also good to know that by our faith, God our heavenly Father, always has a place ready for us so that we can belong in his family.