A minister
was visiting a lady in the nursing home and, in an effort to make conversation,
he asked her about her childhood. She replied,
"My Dad was horrible to us! All he
did was yell at us and tell us how stupid we were!" When the visit was over, the minister reflected,
"After 94 years, she still hears the voice of her father. After 94 years of success, failure and
everything in-between, she is still carrying the hurtful label that she was
given when she was six years old. She
was told she was stupid and she never forgot it!"
Can you
relate to that? People can be mean and
the labels and names that they give us can be hard to forget. In fact, sometimes we hear labels like “lazy,
stupid, worthless, useless, weak, weird, failure” (and the list goes on and on)
so often that we start to label ourselves that way. After a while, the weight of those words can
be very hard to bear.
But what if
we heard some other words? What if we
had other labels to think about? What if
we listened to how God sees us and what he names us?
This is not
a comprehensive list, but it will get us started. God calls us his: Treasured possession
(Deuteronomy 7:6); Sons and daughters (2 Corinthians 6:18); Masterpiece
(Ephesians 2:10); New creation (2 Corinthians 5:17); Bride (Revelation 19-21);
Friends (John 15:15); Chosen people, royal priesthood, holy nation and his
special possession (1 Peter 2:9).
What if
that was the list that shaped us? What
if those were the names that we called ourselves? Each of those names and descriptions carries
with it a wealth of insight into how special, precious and wonderful each and
every one of us really is. Maybe a
better life starts, not by changing a bunch of things, but by changing how we
see ourselves. Maybe we just need to be
re-labelled.
One of the
blessings of the church is that it ought to be a place where you can hear a new
name and see yourself in a different way.
It is maybe the one place where you can see yourself accurately and can be
reminded that you are “Wonderfully made” (Psalm 139:14).
We may doubt it at times, but ever forget that
God says “You are mine!” (Isaiah 43:1).
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