Longing to belong | with Michelle Lee Barnewall

Gospel Spice | Christian faith, God's love & the Bible

Have you ever felt the need to belong to a particular group or tribe? Have you ever felt like you didn't belong somewhere? I believe we have this deep wired, this God-wired need to belong. And I believe all of us have at some point experienced the absence of that belonging. And that hurts deeply.

The longing to belong is one of my greatest needs, personally. So, when my friend, Michelle Lee Barnewall, wrote a book literally called A Longing to Belong, I was very intrigued. What I love in her book, is that she uses her own personal story of being Asian and growing up in an extremely white neighborhood. She describes how that taught her that she did fit in because she was really American, but then she didn't really. Her book is part memoir, part eloquent theological treatise to challenge us to reconciliation in the name of belonging, in the name of unity in the body of Christ.

It is about ethnic reconciliation. It's about belonging together to the family of God. Our conversation today is very honest. There's nothing Pollyanna or sugarcoated about this, and we're not drawing a black and white picture at all. Actually, I think her book is extremely subtle, balanced, challenging and beautiful at the same time. So, we discuss the deep longing to belong that we each carry, deep inside.

Michelle doesn't mind the ambiguity of not having black and white answers. Her book, A Longing to Belong, really fits in the same category. She has a PhD from the University of Notre Dame. She is a professor of New Testament at Biola University. She brings a level of nuance and a comfort in ambiguity that I find much needed in our generation, in our culture today. So, join us today!

We invite you to check out the first episode of each of our series, and decide which one you will want to start with.

Go to gospelspice.com for more, and go especially to gospelspice.com/podcast to enjoy our guests! Interested in our blog? Click here: gospelspice.com/blog

Identity in the battle | Ephesians

https://www.podcastics.com/episode/74762/link/

Centering on Christ | The Tabernacle experience

https://www.podcastics.com/episode/94182/link/

Shades of Red | Against human oppression

https://www.podcastics.com/episode/115017/link/

God's glory, our delight

https://www.podcastics.com/episode/126051/link/

Support us on Gospel Spice, PayPal and Venmo!