What does being an outsider feel like? - Outsiders - TouchPoints

Genesis 21:14So Abraham got up early the next morning, prepared food and a container of water, and strapped them on Hagar’s shoulders. Then he sent her away with their son, and she wandered aimlessly in the wilderness of Beersheba.

Psalm 107:4Some wandered in the wilderness, lost and homeless.

Outsiders can feel lost. Often our relationships anchor us to a specific place and help us determine who we are and where we are in life. When those relationships are broken, we can feel abandoned and lost.

Psalm 31:11-12I am scorned by all my enemies and despised by my neighbors—even my friends are afraid to come near me. When they see me on the street, they run the other way. I am ignored as if I were dead, as if I were a broken pot.

Jeremiah 22:28“Why is this man Jehoiachin like a discarded, broken jar? Why are he and his children to be exiled to a foreign land?”

Jeremiah 30:17“I will give you back your health and heal your wounds,” says the Lord. “For you are called an outcast—‘Jerusalem for whom no one cares.’”

Lamentations 4:15“Get away!” the people shouted at them. “You’re defiled! Don’t touch us!” So they fled to distant lands and wandered among foreign nations, but none would let them stay.

Outsiders can feel ignored, unwanted, uncared for, and unimportant.

Jeremiah 20:10I have heard the many rumors about me. They call me “The Man Who Lives in Terror.” They threaten, “If you say anything, we will report it.” Even my old friends are watching me, waiting for a fatal slip. “He will trap himself,” they say, “and then we will get our revenge on him.”

Outsiders can feel alone, even in a crowd of people.

Isaiah 49:14Jerusalem says, “The Lord has deserted us; the Lord has forgotten us.”

Outsiders can feel forgotten.

Ephesians 2:11Don’t forget that you Gentiles used to be outsiders. You were called “uncircumcised heathens” by the Jews, who were proud of their circumcision, even though it affected only their bodies and not their hearts.

Outsiders can feel judged, ridiculed, and inferior. Many feel they were never given the chance to be on the inside, perhaps because of their appearance, social status, family, or other characteristic.

Leviticus 19:33“Do not take advantage of foreigners who live among you in your land.”

Micah 2:9“You have evicted women from their pleasant homes and forever stripped their children of all that God would give them.”

Outsiders can feel exploited and vulnerable. Because they are on the outside, they cannot possibly know when others are plotting against them.

Psalm 137:4How can we sing the songs of the Lord while in a pagan land?

Outsiders can feel distraught and depressed. Maintaining a healthy perspective on our identities can be difficult when surrounded by people who criticize us based on very limited and surface perceptions.

Ezekiel 22:7Fathers and mothers are treated with contempt. Foreigners are forced to pay for protection. Orphans and widows are wronged and oppressed among you.

Zechariah 7:10Do not oppress widows, orphans, foreigners, and the poor. And do not scheme against each other.

Outsiders can feel oppressed by people who seem to be on the inside. Those on the outside often feel as though everything in society is set up against them and that receiving justice is impossible.