When You're On the Outside

EVERGREEN | WEEK 3

"When You're on the Outside"

Have you ever felt like an outsider?

Like everyone else got the memo—except you.

This month, in our Evergreen series, we’ve been talking about how to live through hard seasons. We chose the evergreen tree as our symbol because it stays alive and green when everything else looks dead. It’s a picture of the promise God gives to those who trust Him:

“But blessed are those who trust in the Lord
and have made the Lord their hope and confidence.
They are like trees planted along a riverbank,
with roots that reach deep into the water…
Their leaves stay green,
and they never stop producing fruit.”
(Jeremiah 17:7–8)

Faith can still grow in hard seasons. You can still flourish—even when life feels cold.

The Feeling of Being on the Outside

Recently, my family discovered a new favorite game on a road trip: Impostor. If you’ve ever played, you know how it works—everyone knows who belongs except the one person who doesn’t. And that person feels exposed, unsure, and constantly afraid of being found out.

It turns out my kids are really good liars.

But isn’t that how life feels sometimes?

We all know what it’s like to pretend we belong while secretly feeling like frauds. One of my favorite Christmas movies, Home Alone, captures this perfectly.

Kevin is the ultimate outsider—misunderstood, pushed aside, and literally left behind. To protect himself, he pretends to be an insider. He creates an illusion that everything is fine, even though the house is empty.

That’s what many of us do. We work hard, curate the image, and convince everyone we’re okay—when the truth is, we feel alone. That gap between how we feel and what we present is often called impostor syndrome.

Research shows that nearly 70% of people experience it at some point. High achievers, leaders, and people stepping into new roles feel it the most. You can be invited, successful, and called—and still feel like you don’t belong.

Outsiders in the Christmas Story

The Christmas story is filled with people living through hard seasons—but none more overlooked than the shepherds.

Luke tells us they were nearby when Jesus was born—close in proximity, but far from the action. Shepherds lived outside the city, outside religious systems, and outside social acceptance. They were considered unclean, uneducated, and untrustworthy.

They felt:

Unworthy — their work kept them from religious rituals
Inadequate — socially and spiritually
Unloved — rejected by society and excluded from community life

Sound familiar?

Many of us feel like shepherds. We know our past. We know our failures. We walk into church singing worship songs while carrying secrets no one else knows.

Holidays can amplify that feeling—being on the outside, looking in.