Everyone at my church is in a different life stage to me and I feel permanently out of place. What do I do with that?

“Both young men, and maidens; old men, and children: Let them praise the name of the LORD: for his name alone is excellent; his glory is above the earth and heaven.”

Psalm 148 calls the whole created order into worship and then works down the human list: old men, children, young men, young women, each named separately and all doing the same thing. The psalm has no sense that one stage of life is the real congregation while the others are visiting. It is a picture of praise that only works properly when the ages are gathered rather than sorted.

“For as we have many members in one body, and all members have not the same office: So we, being many, are one body in Christ, and every one members one of another.”

Paul was writing to a Roman church made of groups with almost nothing socially in common, Jewish and Gentile believers with different histories, foods, and calendars. His argument is that the parts of a body are not supposed to match each other. A church where everyone shared your life stage would be comfortable and would also be missing something. None of which makes being the odd one out any less lonely on a Sunday.