There have been many times when I felt like I was on the outside looking in. This was especially true when I first moved overseas and couldn’t understand the language. I would walk into a market or a small shop, and although I was physically present, I had no idea what was happening around me. The shopkeeper would look at me, say something, and wait for a response. I was powerless to answer. Even though I was standing there, I couldn’t participate in the conversation or change what was happening because I just didn’t understand.
Those days were so frustrating that I vowed to learn the language. For hours, I pored over books like Simplified Swahili and struggled through simple phrases. Month after month, I wondered if I would ever be able to communicate. Little by little, however, things started to change. What once sounded like meaningless noise gradually became words, then conversations, and eventually understanding. Today, I not only speak the language fluently, but I also have the privilege of translating for others who find themselves in that same place: present yet feeling like they’re on the outside looking in.
No longer on the outside
In today’s world, I often feel the same way I did in those shops many years ago. My words are not always understood, and what’s for sale in the world’s marketplace no longer appeals to me. I’m no longer shopping there. Still, I can’t control what seems to be happening around me. Then I came across a passage of Scripture that completely changed my perspective.
“The church, you see, is not peripheral to the world; the world is peripheral to the church.”
Ephesians 1:22 (MSG)
I realized something that day. I’m not really the one on the outside looking in.
I have inside information about God’s Kingdom. The Church is not revolving around the world. According to Paul, the world revolves around the Church, looking in on what God is doing through His people. That realization changed how I see the world. What happens in the Church profoundly impacts what happens outside it. Yet, because we are often unaware of our influence, we fail to use it to help those who desperately need it.
The world is looking in
For centuries, many believers have seen themselves mostly as victims of an increasingly dark world. But Scripture paints a different story. Those without Christ are the true victims of sin and its effects. We are not powerless onlookers, like I was in that small shop years ago, unable to communicate or make a difference. Through Christ, we are called to bring hope, light, and change to the world around us.
Another passage of Scripture that has profoundly influenced my thinking over the years is found in Ezekiel 22:
“I looked for someone to stand up for me against all this, to repair the defenses of the city, to take a stand for me and stand in the gap to protect this land so I wouldn’t have to destroy it. I couldn’t find anyone. Not one. So I’ll empty out my wrath on them, burn them to a crisp with my hot anger, serve them with the consequences of all they’ve done. Decree of God, the Master.”
Ezekiel 22:30 (MSG)
What a tragedy it would be to discover that while the world was searching, we remained silent. God has entrusted His Church with the hope the world is longing for. We are not powerless spectators. We have been called to stand in the gap, to bring light into darkness, and to point people to Christ.
The world is waiting. It is peering into God’s shop, searching for something the world’s marketplace could never offer. The doors are open. The invitation has already been given. The question is not whether they are looking, but whether we are ready to welcome them in and freely give away what God has so freely given to us.
