Have you ever been judged or opposed because of a label? Have your dreams, visions, and hopes been judged as impossible just because it’s you who is the dream bearer?
If you have, welcome to the club.
We have an obsession in our current generation, a silent pandemic called Obsessive Labeling Syndrome. We are obsessed with classifying and labeling people, putting them into little boxes, and giving them worth based on those labels. Our words have become weapons of mass destruction. We have become experts at labeling just so we can dismiss people instead of receiving them for who they are.
Thanks to freedom of expression, our labeling is unrestrained. Social media has created keyboard warriors who carry their trophies of destroying people’s identities behind a keyboard with pride. It’s pathetic, yet for some reason, it’s become a normalized way of life.
If you’ve ever been judged because of labels, grab a seat and welcome to the table. At this table, we tell our stories with no fear and prejudice, and we make lots of fun and a toast to those labels. Our main goal at this table is to remind you that you aren’t your labels.
Before we had this table, our Father showed us the way. Because He has walked this path before, He knows exactly the sting of labels.
Jesus, in His hometown, and throughout the Bible, was labeled. The Pharisees said He performed miracles because of Beelzebub. In His hometown, Nazareth, when He tried to teach and perform miracles, they labeled Him. In Matthew 13:55, His community said, “Isn’t He the carpenter’s son?” Because of that label, they rejected Him. For them, all Jesus could ever be was a carpenter’s son. He wasn’t qualified to be the Messiah. How could He?
This label wasn’t just an embarrassment to Jesus but to His family origin as well. Just like Jesus, have you been rejected because of your past or background? Have your dreams and vision been denied based on, “Isn’t she the drunkard’s daughter? Isn’t he the son of a prostitute? Isn’t her father a lunatic?”
People will label you based on your background, circumstances, family name, past, and environment. They will limit your capacity, and try to diminish what God has put on the inside of you. If you ain’t strong or careful with labels, you might end up believing them and abort your vision, dreams, and hope.
If Jesus allowed the labels of His hometown to get to Him, He would have aborted His mission.
The thing with labels is that they don’t tell the whole story. Over time, when you wear labels you’ve been given for so long, the more you allow them to determine your future. Yes, Jesus was the carpenter’s son but that wasn’t His identity, that’s not all who He was. You’ve got to defy the odds and refuse to be limited by those labels.
From the outside, the people of Nazareth saw nothing special about Jesus. Carpenters were probably the lowest-earning and least respected people. So the people underestimated Him thinking nothing special could ever come from a mere carpenter’s son.
Can you relate?
Good. You ain’t alone. Thank God Jesus didn’t listen to those naysayers. You shouldn’t either. If the Apostle Paul let the labels he had been given get to him, his life wouldn’t be inspiring us today. Our labels may describe our past, but our identity in Christ determines our future.
One favorite thing I love about God is that He doesn’t label us. All He knows is that we are His children. Period. When God calls you, He doesn’t call you by your past, current circumstances, or your environment. When He calls you, He calls you His child. He calls you what you’ll be in the future. He called Gideon a mighty man of valor when he had labeled himself as the least. He called Mary the blessed among women when she was just an ordinary maiden. He called Peter the rock upon which the church will be built when he had denied Him three times.
Can we start normalizing receiving and accepting people for who they are and not for the labels we’ve given them?
The only label that should matter to you moving forward is who God calls you. As for the other labels, trash them. Don’t let people’s labels determine who you are. To reach your destiny, you need to tune out all the naysayers and their labels. Regardless of your past, your family name, your current circumstances, and the labels you’ve been given, greatness exists within you. You are here to slay giants and to break cycles and patterns in your family. You’re here because you’re the living proof that God exists.
