When have you felt like an outsider? Remember the experience of not being accepted, or being told that you did not belong? Maybe it happened at school growing up, or in work and professional life. It can be a devastating moment when we are pushed aside, unwanted, made to feel that we are not quite good enough.

Growing up as a preacher’s kid, I was often treated as an outsider in high school. That was painful. There is certrainly still enough sexism in our world that this happens to women, especially in their professional lives. All of the women pastors I know have experienced some of this in the church. There is still enough racism in the world that persons of color are treated as outsiders. We have a lot of fear about strangers in this world, people we do not know. We’re encouraged to be...