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Consider this quote from Abe Lincoln
"America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves."
Have you ever gone to a meeting or a gathering and had to wear one of those “Hello My Name Is.” name badges? Usually we don’t really think much about them do we? We put our name on them and wade out into the crowd to try to meet people and make connections with others, using that badge as a way to identify ourselves.
However, what if your tag really identified you? If it held the word that describes you the most, and showed the things you carry around with you? That thing you hide from everyone else in the outside world, or perhaps the label you carry around that others give you. What would your name tag read?
How would you feel having yourself labeled like that? Would it cause you to shy away from the spotlight? Would you carry that label around with you with shame and cause you to feel like you aren’t as important as other people? Would you use your label as a crutch?
Even though we don’t wear name tags with these labels on them out in public every day, we wear them silently at every moment. We label ourselves, and are labeled by others. “Slow”, “Damaged”, “Fat”, “Unworthy”, “Lonely”, “And Ugly”. Are those the labels that really define who we are? Or do those labels simply stick with us because it is easier to accept the negative than to revel in the positive?
Whatever your label may or may not be, the one thing we forget is that those labels don’t really apply to us. None of those labels really tells who we are as individuals. Every one of us carries around a label that we would not wish to have, but in the end it really isn’t who you and I truly are. No, you are much more than that, for each one of you was loved long before you were even born. You were loved thousands of years ago when God gave us his son and put him on a cross to die for you and me. His death was a sign to us that we were to be forgiven of all of our sins, because God loves each one of us regardless of the person we are. Short, fat, tall, worried, troubled, poor, rich, friendly or quiet, each and every one of us is loved more than we will ever know.
So next time you walk into a conference or a meeting room and you are asked to write your name on one of those stickers, take a moment and think about it, for the thing you should really be writing down is “loved” or a “Child of God”. HE loves you more than you ever know, and loves you for the person you are right now. But He also loves you too much to let you stay that way, so remember to pass that love along to others and see just how much more positive your world can be, and let’s do away with those labels that are unfair and really don’t belong.
See you next week….Remember, we’re all in this together.