October 16 will mark 40 years since the
release of Pat Benatar’s, “We Belong.” Like
many tunes in our musical culture, “We
Belong” highlights the pain stemming from
difficulties that conspire to keep people from
relating to one another. More than that, it calls
for people to overlook differences and failures
in order to connect with one another. While
Benatar is crooning in the song for repair of a
shattered relationship, I see a larger lesson. I
see someone recognizing that, even though
each of us is broken, that each of us is
imperfect and fallen, we still need to be with
one another. We crave community. We need
to belong.
Everyone in our world has the desire to
belong. That is why people join clubs, groups,
and the like. People need to live in
community. Although a lot of the world will not
admit it, and does not believe it, this is how
God made us to be. God designed us to live
together, and to do so in harmony. God also
designed us as unique individuals, with
particular skills and viewpoints and thoughts
and ideas. It is essential that we notice the
apparent contradiction in what God has
done—God has created us as unique
individuals, but with the intent that we live
together in unity. That can be a tall order. But
God gave us Jesus, the only path to true
unity. There is no other way.
In Christ, we belong. With all of our varied
personal histories and experiences, with our
multifarious ways of thinking, with the
potpourri of personalities that even the
smallest groups of people manifest, we
belong.
In Christ, we belong. -Ricky
