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Welcome to another episode of Jubilee Life Coaches blog. I am Coach Brian. I've been a pastor for over 30 years, and lately I've been working as a Christian life coach. I bring a balance of Christian counseling and reformed theology into our worldview. Now today's episode is about two young Korean sprinters and the belonging the gospel offers to everyone who has ever felt like a stranger. So four young men stood on a podium at the Asian Games this past week. All four represented Korea, and they had just one bronze medal in the men's four by one hundred meter relay, and they had set a new Korean record. And yet online some people asked the question about two of them. Are they naturalized? Now hidden inside that question is an older one. It is a question many of us carry. Where do I belong? Am I allowed to be here? Now let me tell you their stories. The race almost did not happen. In the Heats, the team was disqualified initially for leaving the Bataan Exchange Zone. And their appeal was accepted, however, and in the final they ran 38.43 seconds, which was a Korean national record, and it was a medal. Now the the second runner was named Namadi Joel Jin. Some of you may remember him from the 2016 drama called Descendants of the Sun, where a little boy is offered shoes and asks for a goat instead. Now that boy was Joel Jin and his father is Nigerian. Now his mother is Korean and he was born in Seoul and grew up in Kimpo. Now at these same games, he finished fourth in the hundred meters. He missed a medal by six six one hundredth of a second. A few days later, he stepped back onto the track and carried the baton. The anchor was Biwesa Daniel Kasama. He was born in Ansan, Korea in 2003. His parents are from the Democratic Republic of the Congo. And Korea grants citizenship only by parental heritage, not by birthplace. So the fact that he was born in Ansan did not automatically give him the Korean citizenship. So Biwesa Daniel Kasama, born and raised in Korea, lived as a Congolese citizen. Now he became a Korean citizen in 2018 in middle school. He received his Korean citizenship together with his mother. Two years later, at 17, he told a local newspaper that he wanted to wear the Korean flag on his chest, compete internationally, and hang a gold medal around his neck. Now this year he ran the final leg for Korea and it was not gold, but the flag was on his chest. Brenner Brown makes a helpful distinction between fitting in and belonging. Fitting in means being accepted because you became like everyone else. Belonging means being accepted as you are. Those of us who grew up between two cultures know this. We know how long a small question can stay with us. Where are you really from? In internal family systems language, that ache often lives in a young, wounded part of us. IFS calls it an exile. Then other parts rush in to protect it. One part works harder to earn acceptance, another part tries not to be noticed. Another keeps its distance first, and these parts are not bad, they are just trying to protect our belonging. But here is where our faith speaks a deeper word. The one who finally brings those exile parts home is not our inner strength. No, it is God, the Creator. Our belonging does not rest in us, no it rests in Christ, who bore our shame outside the gate. Listen to Ephesians chapter two verse nineteen. So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but your fellow citizens were the saints and members of the household of God. Paul wrote this to people who once stood outside God's promises. One phrase in Buesa's story stays with me. He received his citizenship together with his mother. You know, the citizenship of heaven is also received together with someone. We do not earn it by proving we qualify, we receive it in union with Christ. The Heidelberg Catechism begins with a beautiful question What is your only comfort in life and in death? And it answers that I am not my own, but belong body and soul, in life and in death to my faithful Savior, Jesus Christ. Brenner Brown encourages us to belong to ourselves. There is wisdom in that. But the gospel goes somewhere safer, and I'm secure not because I hold on to myself, I'm secure because Christ holds on to me. Now one more picture. In Revelation chapter seven, John sees a great multitude that no one could number from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb. Notice the nations are not erased, they are gathered. Belonging to a country is a good gift. It is right to rejoice when we see our flag on our podium. But on that track, Nigeria, Congo, and Korea passed one baton. Maybe it was a small preview of that great day. So let me leave you with three questions. Take your time with them. First, think of the first person or place where you felt, hmm, this is where I belong. What made you feel that way? Second, if there is a part of you that runs harder to be accepted, what is it trying to protect? What would you like to say to that part today? And third, if someone near you still feels like a stranger, what might one small step of passing them the baton look like? Friends, wherever you come from, whatever your face looks like in Christ, you're no longer a stranger. Thanks once again for joining us. You can find more information on my website, jubileecoach.com. I'd like to encourage you to visit and look through especially the life block section. Well, that's it for today. Don't forget, we're freed in Christ to live. Now let us live to free others. This is Jubilee Coach. Until next time. Godspeed.