3/8 Ignite "March Madness-Belonging"

Devotion- Jared Graves


Summary:
At this time of the year, when it comes to NCAA basketball, there are many teams who are trying to prove that they belong in the NCAA tournament. While all conference winners get into the 65-team tournament, 30+ spots are still out there to be filled by "at large teams". These are teams who did not win their conference, but still deserve to belong in the tourney based on their win-loss record and who they beat throughout the season.


A few years ago there was a team called George Mason. They did not win their conference tournament and they got in as an at-large team. Now, they were from a small conference so there were plenty of people, notably CBS Commentator Billy Packer, who stated that there were more deserving teams that got left out of the tourney. They basically said George Mason did not belong.


As a 13 seed, George Mason made it to the final four. They were one of the last four teams playing for a national championship. They proved that they belonged.


We are constantly longing to belong to something. We don't want to be left out, and we do not want to be socially inadequate. Sometimes we change things about ourselves in order to fit in. Sometimes we decide to take on new hobbies or interests in order to find a group of people to belong to. Belonging is important. However, we need to find out what type of belonging is healthy, and what is not.


1 Peter 2:9-12


Christians were now at a crossroads. They had to leave everything they knew and adjust to a new way of thinking and living. Some of these people were confused as to where they fit in with their new morals and way of life.


Bad belonging (two extremes):

• Compromising our beliefs or friendships. This is never a healthy belonging. This always causes you to discard what is right and the good relationships that you have in order to seek acceptance from someone else.
• Secluding ourselves, or becoming social hermit. We are not called to live in isolation. Peter did not tell the Christians to isolate themselves, rather to be a key part in the world. They just needed to safeguard their hearts and actions to make sure that they were not doing anything contradicting their beliefs. Belonging to comfort-zone groups who look, think, and act like us is not healthy.

Good Belonging:

• Wide variety of people from different races, colors, and backgrounds
• A community that you can give and receive freely