College students were asked to write a message to incoming freshmen about their own experience of having a hard time in a new community and that it gets better. Students who went through this "belonging intervention" were more likely to have better grades and feel less isolated for years afterwards!
So, what makes us feel like we belong? Telling our stories and assuring others they belong. How Christian is that?
I love that Jesus didn't give us bullet points. An article on "5 ways to be a better follower" does not appear in the Gospels. Whenever someone asked him about specific doctrine, he told them a story. He told parable after parable to his confused disciples and asked questions of his questioners.
As a follower of Jesus, I have to think that he lived that way on purpose. Bullet points are so easy to skim, memorize, and then oversimplify. Jesus catches our attention with stories that we have to internalize in order to understand. And when we internalize them, we can tell them. And when we tell them, we begin to believe that they might be true for us, too.
Like a lonely college student who encourages others that it gets better, we encourage one another that we all have a place at the table, that we all belong, that God speaks to us through one another's stories.