The Need to Belong

 

In my psychology class in college in 1968, I became acquainted with the writings of Abraham Maslow.  Although there are many areas in which I would disagree with Dr. Maslow, I agree with his assessment of the two primary needs of humankind: the need to achieve and the need to belong.  In other words, we all need something to do, and we all need to belong to a cause.  Everyone needs a job or a hobby to look back upon at the end of the day, and to be able to say, “Look what I accomplished.”  People go to a bar after work looking for that satisfaction of belonging.  And, for the same reason, people go to church on Sunday.  They need a community to belong to.  But Christians have a problem as we seek to belong: we just don’t seem to fit into this world’s system.  We are not of this world; we are of another world.  Jesus put it this way in His Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 6:24, “No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon (materialism).”  Hey, you must choose which side you are on: the world’s side or the side of Jesus Christ.  You can’t have it both ways.  And you must keep on deciding every minute of every day.  You may make the decision for Christ when you become a Christian, but you must decide to live the Christian life over and over again.  And it’s your choice.  But choose wisely, because there are consequences that accompany your choices.  Hey, choose for Jesus today.  You’ll be glad that you did!