We live in a society where everything eventually draws a label.
It’s to the point we’re so trained to put people in a box that we can usually decide within a few minutes of meeting someone or reading the things they write whether they’re our preferred political persuasion or religious belief or football fan.
When we put people in a box we run the risk of losing out on valuable relationships that could grow us as people.
That’s not the biggest problem with labels.
When we allow ourselves to be labeled and buy into those labels, we run the risk of creating idols for the very things used to label us.
For example, let’s say you’re the person who handles most of the social media aspects for your employer. As time goes on, your co-workers come to you with questions and you gladly help them because you love the subject. Soon you’re known as the “social media guru” of the company. Without evening thinking about it, you start to put that label on yourself and start defining yourself as a “social media guru.”
Then you build a website about it. You blog about it. Every social media outlet has you identified by that status.
Before you know it, your “status” becomes an idol. An idol that you place before God.
Then when God removes that idol from your life you’ll find yourself wandering because you’ve lost sight of who you are in Christ. You’ll feel like your identity has been robbed and you will try to pick up the broken pieces because it’s a comfortable familiarity to be wrapped in the label you allowed to stick upon you.
Now, I want to be clear…there’s nothing wrong with excelling or becoming an expert in a field. Indeed, God wants for us to be excellent in what we do as if we’re working for Him. We just have to be vigilant to not allow our job or status to become our identity.
Have you ever allowed what you do to define you rather than who you are in Christ?
