Labels-the first part.

Have you ever reached the point in your life where you are tired of being labeled by something? Where you felt like you were more than that one thing that everyone else saw?

I heard an interesting piece of trivia a few months ago that really stuck with me. I have no idea if it's true, but think with me on this one.....In Britain, it is considered extremely rude to ask someone in conversation what they do for a living. And the reason is this: if someone is sitting at a pub next to someone else, their opinion should be equal to the other, no matter what the pay scale or job title. They should be able to talk politics, religion, or whatever without any labels-while simply just being people. Unfortunately, in America that's one of the first questions we ask each other in conversation. And then we label each other based on that one attribute.

Labels-why do we concern ourselves so much with them? On clothes, cars, zip codes, neighborhoods, watches, jewelry-they dominate our thinking when it comes to spending our money. But what about the labels that we place on each other?

I was at Animal Kingdom a couple weeks ago, and I was taking a walking tour of some exotic animals, and I was standing in front of the Okapi area. I had never seen an Okapi before, and I have to say that it did look pretty wacky. For a picture, check here.

While I was amazed at the creativity of a God who made this animal, and made its DNA unique from anything else, a lady walked up behind me with her husband and after about 5 seconds said this. "Oh, this is just a half-horse, half-giraffe." And then they kept on WALKING!

I couldn't believe it! Here was an animal that has been transplanted from the other side of the world, and this woman labeled it and was immediately disinterested after 5 seconds. She didn't care to know any more about it-she had already put it in a group she thought she already grasped.

And guess what? We do the same thing, but with each other.

We tend to label people in order to categorize them into groups that we think we can easily understand. It keeps us feeling proud that we "know" someone without any depth of relationship. If we can label them with minimal effort, then we can tell ourselves that we already know what and how they think. And therefore, we don't have to spend any time getting to know them. It's horribly unhealthy and is part of the reason we don't have real relationships and community with each other often.

Labels are usually based on traits that we can't change like gender or race or nationality OR they have to do with skill sets (like job, hobby, and talent) and the result of the skill, which is job title and pay scale.

Labels tend to separate and divide. Think of your church-how do they separate groups? Marital status? Age? What happens is that we put people in groups with others who we think are just like them, and that somehow this creates good community. That somehow we can take this one attribute and figure out something about them. Think I'm wrong or weird yet? Try this....

Think of who you respect more: a plumber or a doctor? A nurse or a housewife? A minister or a construction worker? No matter what your answer is, it's based on a preconceived notion of what the label entails. Maybe you don't trust ministers. Maybe you think doctors are better because they went to school longer. Whatever the reason, it immediately separates and stereotypes people unfairly.

The label takes away the uniqueness of the individual. Like every snowflake, we are all different, and even though we are all under the label "human," we have forgotten how each one of us is completely unique from the others. We label each other. But the truth is we all hate to be labeled ourselves. We are very passionate about our own labels-we insist that we are more than just that label, right?

I would argue that Jesus purposed to act in such a way labels were clearly emphasized as wrong. He ate with labeled people, and in doing so, treated them as forgiven and equal. He freed a harlot from demonic oppression, and she became one of his closest followers. His 12 right hand men included tax collectors, fishermen, and construction workers. Blue collar, white collar, it didn't matter.

Jesus absolutely loved to use the people's preconceived ideas and stereotypes based on labels, and flip them around. (A few examples? The Good Samaritan, Lazarus and the rich man, the woman at the well). He took labels and showed people that they couldn't generalize based on any of them. He showed that our own stereotypes only point out our own hypocrisy.

The ideas Jesus proposed were so opposite to the world and the culture He was living in. He never joined the popular revolution and rebelled against Rome. Instead, He took the labels that got the most glory and respect and pointed out the obvious hypocrisies and weaknesses. He actually never spoke against the wickedness of Rome. He spoke against the religious establishment and told parables about their lack of heart. He spoke of their pride and their religiosity regularly, which ultimately led to his execution.

As people who carry the name of Christ, what can we learn from this? As we walk this journey with God to become more like Him, what should happen?

The beauty of the kingdom of God is that labels don't matter anymore. They don't help you or hinder you with God. For example, God truly loves the poor, but he loves the rich just as much. Being one or the other doesn't help or hinder you when it comes to His love. It's the idea that God doesn't look upon our labels. He doesn't need to subgroup us into categories in order to understand us.

Just remember that He loves you very much, and He thinks you are more than your label. Whatever people have thought about you, whatever term they use to describe you-you are more than that one thing. Whether it is black, white, Hispanic, nerdy, athletic, lonely, weird, rich, or whatever-you are loved by Him, and He knows who you are. Not based on outward categories or attributes-He loves you for you, and knows your heart, the real you, and loves you anyways.

Gal. 3:28
There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus.

Col. 3:11
In this new life, it doesn't matter if you are a Jew or a Gentile, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbaric, uncivilized, slave, or free. Christ is all that matters, and he lives in all of us.