5th January 2026
Stories
‘Settling as a Foreigner’ – A New Year Reflection
By Rev Dr Nike Adebajo, St Hild Baptist Formation Programme Leader
'Tucked into Stephen’s speech defending his stance that Jesus is the Messiah when he was hurled before the Sanhedrin, is this little phrase “settled as a foreigner” (Acts 7.29). He was referring to Moses, who had just fled from Egypt, where he had been brought up with all the royal trappings of the son of Pharaoh’s daughter. He was living in Midian, far away from the luxury he’d known in Pharaoh’s palace, now a refugee.
I can identify with Moses (obviously not the bit about being raised in the king’s palace though my late father did always call me Adenike Omo Oba, Yoruba for child of the king) as I relocated to the UK, thousands of miles away from where I was born and raised. Several decades on, I’m still learning UK history told from the perspective of the more powerful, not from that of the colonised. I’m learning different cultural perspectives than those I was raised in, for example, that offering to leave someone on their own when they’ve just experienced close family bereavement is generally considered good etiquette, a complete anathema in other cultures.
I was chatting with a friend recently about my dual nationality. They reflected that one must feel rootless, not having that sense of singular connection to a particular place. I could almost hear a certain sadness in their voice on my behalf. As followers of The Way, are we not all meant to live with a sense of discontent, of discollocation of dissonance? As people who belong to another Kingdom, are we not called to live like aliens and strangers on earth, always longing for a better country, a heavenly one, whose builder and architect is God? (Hebrews 11.13,15,10).
As people with this divine longing, the writer of Hebrews (12:1-3) invites us to do at least three things:
- Jettison everything that hinders, including sins that entangle
- Run the race marked out for us with perseverance
- Fix our gaze on Jesus, and ultimately learning to see things through His eyes
So dear sisters and brothers, aliens, refugees, pilgrims, nomads, sojourners, exiles, citizens of another Kingdom, if you’ll accept it, here’s wishing you a holy discontent as we begin this new year, one with your yearning for the Kingdom to come, so keen, that you cannot but regularly exclaim “Thy Kingdom come!” and then go and live for it.
Remain settled, but only as a foreigner!'
