I wrote a few weeks ago about curiosity as an act of belonging. I also had a chance to go to Baylor University for a few lovely days of conversation and connection that only furthered my thoughts.
Belonging is relatively easy if we are trying to create a sense of commonality and connection among a homogeneous group. Country clubs create belonging by having shared activities, like golf or tennis or sailing, a membership process where friends recommend friends, and shared social life. When churches and schools attract homogeneous groups of people, it is also relatively easy to create a sense of belonging.
But what about diverse groups of people who don’t assume they fit together? What about the scholar with a PhD sitting in a Bible study alongside a young woman with an intellectual disability? What about the single mother of two and the married couple of fifty years? Or the recent immigrant to this country and the proud daughter of three generations of veterans? The Republican and the Democrat? Or on down the list of our perceived differences? How do we create belonging in these spaces?
It strikes me that belonging does not depend upon homogeneity, but it does depend on a deep sense of shared identity and purpose. And when we think identity and purpose comes only, or primarily, from our ethnic heritage, our political leanings, or any other marker of status or social position—it is easy to segregate ourselves. In other words, belonging in an inter-ability context, or a multi-racial context, or an intergenerational context, will depend on becoming curious and open to our shared humanity and to a deeper sense of shared identity and purpose.
- Every person has inherent worth and dignity.
- We are all vulnerable and in need of one another.
- Each of us longs for love, connection, and belonging.
- Everyone has gifts to give—and needs to be met.
- We all know suffering and joy, loss and beauty.
Our shared humanity is the foundation of true belonging.
(I had a chance to talk with John and Kathy about this, as well as our political divisions, last week on the John and Kathy show.)
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