This piece was published in the San Angelo Standard-Times in August 2009. I hope you enjoy it.
In his book, You Are Special, Max Lucado presents a beautiful story about labels; stars are the esteemed labels and dots are the blackball ones that cut you off from society. His story suggests that we are born free of labels and as we grow, we are inundated by and indentified by them. Throughout our life, it is our goal to detach ourselves from these labels to become One with our Creator and to realize we are Special just because we were created.
Labels are those things we use to differentiate and identify one thing from another. Labels in and of themselves are practical ways of communication; they are neither good nor bad. Labels become a problem when my identity, the core of who I am, my self-worth is measured by the many labels I chose to believe about myself and that I chose to own from those given by the good intentions of others. For example, I am somebody or I am nobody because: I drive this brand of car; or wear this brand of clothes; or have this brand of cell phone; I am a Republican; I am a Democrat; I am graduate from this University or that; I am a high school dropout; I live in this part of town or that one. I am nice, mean, smart, talented, a klutz, an artist, an athlete, a hobo, a business person. The examples are endless to the vast ways we are identified by our labels.
Labeling attaches me to some and sets me apart from others. It fosters a false-pride, a false sense of who I am. I am either better than or worse than the rest of humanity. Labels limit my life experience and limit my own possibilities. For me, they become unbearable burdens, weighing me down and squelching the Spirit of God within.
The shucking of labels has been an ongoing process for me for over 21 years. It has been very liberating and at the same time petrifying. If I give up this label or that, I will be a ‘nobody’ or I will be rejected by those with whom I desperately want connection. It is amazing how all of these crazy and controlling thoughts keep us from moving forward. In truth the more I shuck the labels (the stars and the dots) the more whole I become from the inside out. What I have found is that when I let go of a label, I become more connected with the whole of humanity. I no longer fear people and/or their opinion of me. I come to realize, I am neither wonderful nor hopeless, as my friend George likes to say. It is kind of like a designer shirt, without a label it is just a shirt. It is still made of beautiful fabric and it still has the ultimate purpose offering comfort and protection.
The 11 Days of Global Peace has been a great experience in shucking labels. I was born and raised a Christian. This was all I knew and thus was a primary label for me. It kept me in a very limited God space and limited my experience of the Infinite God. As I sat and experienced the other faith traditions speaking about Reaching In and Reaching Out and when I participated in their faith celebrations, I realize, once again, how much all of our faith traditions are the same. In fact, if we took the labels off of the doors and the props away from the presenters, it would have been very difficult to identify one faith from the other. The essence of each faith is love, peace, charity and service to others. And the passion and love for God was evident in the words and expressions of each presenter for each faith. You could see how they were all madly in love with the Same God, expressed by different names.
The discourse and conflict in life is when we are so identified by our labels that we close our hearts and our minds to those with different labels. We draw a line in the sand and we pick sides. We fight to the death to protect the label, the idea, or the stuff. It is in the willingness to cross the line, to see ourselves in the eyes of others that we will know peace. This is what happened, when Jesus wrote in the sand, and suggested, he who is free from sin may cast the first stone (John 8:7). With that said, all of the people disbanded and no stones were thrown. Peace, truth and love prevail when we identify with our sameness.
I encourage you to become aware of the labels which are running your life. Ask yourself, is this the true me? Does this label truly define the essence of whom I am and who you are? Does this label limit me and my life experience? Does this label make me feel more than or less than my neighbor? Without this or that label, who would you or I be?
In the beginning God created humanity and deemed it GOOD! This is the essence of humanity, we are created in the image and likeness of that which created us and it is Life-giving and unlimited potential. Claim this truth and see what happens.
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