Building Belonging in a Lonely WorldSample

Devotion 4: Barriers to Belonging

In John 4:4-26 we read of the encounter between Jesus and the Samaritan woman at the well. In the culture of the day, there were all manner of reasons why Jesus and the woman should not have entered into conversation: their different genders, their different ethnicities (Jews and Samaritans were known to hate each other), and the women’s past all presented a problem… but Jesus was far more concerned with ‘shalom’ for the individual than He was about social norms.

In the latter part of the passage (John 4:17-18), we read that Jesus confronted the woman's past, not to make her feel embarrassed or guilty, but because he knew it was a source of deep hurt for her. Her past trauma (from the Greek word for wound) was a barrier to her belonging.

Life's experiences, both good and bad, shape us and influence our relationships with the world. When those experiences are bad, they can cause deep emotional and spiritual wounds, which constrict our willingness to belong.

Many lonely people bear the scars of trauma, and so in response to loneliness, we must ask the Holy Spirit to help us emulate Jesus's patience and empathy in our approach.

Prayerfully Consider: Has God allowed you to experience some things that help you empathise with others?

For more on this, please see Session 4 of The Belonging Course.