Adopted

When I first heard the story of Joseph and what his brothers did to him, I couldn’t understand how they could do that to their own brother. I can now, and I know many of you can as well. When you have an authentic encounter with Jesus, you are new—your thoughts, the way you view the world, people, righteousness, and your past. You have hope that others don’t. You have the same body, but everything in you is new.

The Bible says you’ve been adopted into the family of Christ. You have a new Father and are a seed of Abraham. Old things have passed away, and behold, all things have become new. Heaven is your home; you’re only visiting here. You know how you take a trip and can’t wait to get back to your bed? Well, this is that.

I recently celebrated Christmas with my family. I don’t see them much anymore since I live in another state, so I thought it would be nice for me to rent a house for the weekend. I didn’t want anyone to back out, so I paid for everything.

I was there with my immediate family and felt like a complete stranger. It was never this blatantly obvious that I was different until this weekend. Everything seemed to revolve around liquor and old-school rap music. I did all the cooking and cleaning of the kitchen, which kind of worked because the conversation was nothing I could ever sit through without further alienating everyone.

They went on and on about race, racism, old civil rights cases, and each gave an example of how they were discriminated against. It was all victim talk and self pity. It was self defeating and explained to me why they struggle with so much. I was already an outsider, so me saying anything would’ve made things worse.

I finally got a reprieve when I was sitting in the living room and my niece and nephew asked me how Texas was. That question started a three-hour conversation about identity in Christ. My sister later joked that I was talking too much, so I said that was the highlight of the weekend for me. She said, “Then you should have left.”

I whipped around, about to tell her where to get off, but restrained myself from ruining the weekend. I couldn’t believe she would say that, especially when it was me who rented the house and paid for everything—including stockings, matching pajamas, Friday’s dinner, and everyone’s movie tickets. I realize I will never be seen as anything to them but someone dumb enough to pay for things in the name of bonding.

I have been trying to make sense of this. I mourn my place in my family because I know they’ll never understand me, and I will never understand why they don’t want Jesus. I am so torn. I don’t wanna be around folk who only find joy in drinking, weed and self defeating talk. Your family really can be your biggest obstacle. Joseph’s was until he was thrown in jail. He had to be out of the family to become his real authentic self.