We go through life trying to answer that question in one form or another. We spend a great deal of our time, energy, and money trying to fulfill our need to belong, to be accepted, to be loved, to have an identity – a relationship.
Some seek it in their family, their heritage, or their culture. Others look for it in success or accomplishments, and, if they aren’t satisfied with their own, they identify themselves with the achievements of others. You might search for a sense of belonging in a group: gangs, clubs, alumni, even church. 
This human search for belonging is not sinful. It is the result of sin, the vacuum created by the absence of God is the source of this innate desire, but the desire itself is not sin.
The sin is that we look for that “belonging” in all the wrong places. Not all the substitutes are bad in themselves, but these things we attach ourselves to become idols (even the good ones) when we find our sense of fulfillment and satisfaction and belonging in them instead of God. Man is searching for God and doesn’t even know it.
The blessed irony is that by relinquishing my claim to self-ownership and finding my satisfaction in belonging wholly to God, I achieve what I never could by any other identification. By renouncing a desire for self-rule and self-deification I realize my highest fulfillment. I belong to God, I am not my own!
Sorry but I would like who the author is and I woudl like more detail about the author.
Emily,
Thanks for stopping by and taking time to comment.
I am the author of this post. I am a pastor, so this (like many of my posts) flows from my sermons and personal study. You can find a brief description of me by clicking on the “About” tab at the upper left – just above blog title at the top of this page. Not a great amount of detail, but “just the facts.”
Again, thanks for your visit!