I used to do home visit nursing in the mountains of NC before we were married. This led me into many homes of all kinds of people. The mountains have attracted many outsiders in and still have the people who have lived there for generations. This setting allowed for many unique visits. One thing that the true locals did was ask me where I was from and who my people were. While I didn’t grow up in that area particularly, I did have generations of family that did and so after a quick interview on who I was to who, I would be accepted. Not just accepted, but belonging to. Once I was settled as a part of those who lived there for many years I became family, automatically, even if they didn’t actually know my family but knew where they lived that was enough. I was a part of them. I was then no longer allowed to be a professional visitor, but expected to go home with a basket of produce and a dinner invitation for my whole family. This acceptance was more than just “we like who you are” or “neighbors” but a deeper bond that ran beyond my understanding. Having moved about a bit as a kid, I’d never experienced that level of belonging before. There is was a deeper sense of knowing who I was without knowing me as an individual than I’d ever experienced. I was assured that no matter what I always had a place with them, and if I needed any kind of help I was to ask. I belonged to them, was accepted, faults and all, simply because I belonged to them.

I was reminded of this after visiting with one of my neighbors who is a Pakistani Muslim. I was chatting with her about why they chose the area, and she explained simply that there was someone else in the neighborhood who is a part of her tribe. Having that knowledge they knew they would be safe here and moved straight away. I made the assumption that this family member must have been close to them prior to the move, but I was mistaken, as she explained they had never met before they came, but because they are of her tribe they belong to them. As soon as they got the house, she explained, she not only had a home but a family ready. They instantly became like grandparents to her children, she easily left them in their home for days out or nights even for sleepovers. She knew she had this backup for recipes, for company, for childcare and all the other things most would only expect of family or lifelong friends. She’d just met them, but they were her’s and she was their’s. While she misses her family overseas a great deal (the COVID situation has only made her wait all the longer for a chance to just see them) she is content because she has this backup. This sense of belonging is common all over the East and it is one of the biggest barriers for any Muslim considering converting. When one belongs to such a family, leaving it behind is unthinkable, to walk away from the backing and help of the immense network of families is in many ways suicidal. Not just because of the persecution, but the simple everyday life that becomes emptied when one doesn’t have the tribal backup. The gatherings, the traditions, the social support of this magnitude are all major parts of the life. One doesn’t think a great deal about this but little by little it can be utterly overwhelming to be outcast from such a network. When one converts this social network of help, love, friendship, and sanctuary gets stripped away leaving the convert feeling naked and without a place to turn. This stripping is a loss of identity that can’t be spoken of lightly. When Muslims in the East hear of someone converting they think it must be a myth of some kind, not simply because they’ve been taught it doesn’t happen, but because they themselves cannot even imagine why anyone would dare to take such a drastic measure that would cause such soul wrenching harm and grief to themselves. It is akin to tearing ones skin off, unimaginable. The only thought that they can come up with as an explanation of such insanity is money. They blame the missionaries, thinking they must be bribing them to make such decisions, but still the thought remains, no amount of money can buy this identity. 

That’s just how Christ wants us all. Giving it all up, all that sense of security, home, fellowship, backup. Those are all temporary ideas not truth. Family means so much for most of us, and yet Christ tells us to be able to leave them behind. Wealth and comfort are so safe and yet He asks us to give it up. Coming to Him utterly stripped of all of what our limited sense of love is allows Him to be everything to us. Its only when we abandon our bank accounts that He fills them, only when we walk away from family that He becomes ours, only when we recognize that we are utterly in the dark does He truly find us. When we give it all up He fills it deeper. Our clutter is just that, clutter, a sense of security that is false. His sanctuary is all encompassing and never ending. When He says He will be my God, that is a present tense, right here, right now possession, what else in the entire ridiculous world could any of us possibly want? 

We are called to be the filling of others who have lost all for Him too. Just as He fills us with an enormous love, we are to be that for others. You are that to us. You are a great portion of the filling to us. Thank you for being that to us, and helping us to be that to the others we encounter, ready to be found. just because of the persecution, but the simple everyday life that becomes emptied when one doesn’t have the tribal backup. The gatherings, the traditions, the social support of this magnitude are all major parts of the life. One doesn’t think a great deal about this but little by little it can be utterly overwhelming to be outcast from such a network. When one converts this social network of help, love, friendship, and sanctuary gets stripped away leaving the convert feeling naked and without a place to turn. This stripping is a loss of identity that can’t be spoken of lightly. When Muslims in the East hear of someone converting they think it must be a myth of some kind, not simply because they’ve been taught it doesn’t happen, but because they themselves cannot even imagine why anyone would dare to take such a drastic measure that would cause such soul wrenching harm and grief to themselves. It is akin to tearing ones skin off, unimaginable. The only thought that they can come up with as an explanation of such insanity is money. They blame the missionaries, thinking they must be bribing them to make such decisions, but still the thought remains, no amount of money can buy this identity. 

That’s just how Christ wants us all. Giving it all up, all that sense of security, home, fellowship, backup. Those are all temporary ideas not truth. Family means so much for most of us, and yet Christ tells us to be able to leave them behind. Wealth and comfort are so safe and yet He asks us to give it up. Coming to Him utterly stripped of all of what our limited sense of love is allows Him to be everything to us. Its only when we abandon our bank accounts that He fills them, only when we walk away from family that He becomes ours, only when we recognize that we are utterly in the dark does He truly find us. When we give it all up He fills it deeper. Our clutter is just that, clutter, a sense of security that is false. His sanctuary is all encompassing and never ending. When He says He will be my God, that is a present tense, right here, right now possession, what else in the entire ridiculous world could any of us possibly want? This identity is worth everything. 

We are called to be the filling of others who have lost all for Him too. Just as He fills us with an enormous love, we are to be that for others. You are that to us. You are a great portion of the filling to us. Thank you for being that to us, and helping us to be that to the others we encounter, ready to be found.                                    Angela