Labels
“Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him because we shall see him as he is.” 1 John 3:2
One of my favorite things to do in my free time, or when I am trying to distract myself from my school work, is taking online quizzes. Buzzfeed is usually my website of choice, and I can get sucked down the rabbit hole of their quizzes for embarrassingly long periods of time. I love taking the quizzes like: “What does your Chipotle order say about you?” or “You make a salad, and we’ll tell you which High School Musical Character you are.“One quiz is never satisfying enough; I always take at least five or six before I manage to stop myself.
I think my love for these quizzes stems from a desire to feel deeply and perfectly known. Instead of looking to God, and reminding myself of the truth that I am perfectly loved, known, and forgiven, I look for it in the world.
The thing is finding your identity in creation will always fall flat. It may last for a minute, but it will not satisfy. Only the Lord can satisfy us because only he can love and know us perfectly.
Labels in this world will always be temporary; they will always be conditional on who we are in the moment. The “labels” that the Lord gives us in the Bible are eternal. We did not earn them, so we cannot lose them either. They are labels such as: Known, Daughter, Beloved, Forgiven, and so many more.
Living our lives with the knowledge that this is who we are, changes the way we view ourselves. When we fail, we are able to separate the failure from our identity and know that in the midst of the failure God continues to fill us with his abundant love and grace.
Today take a moment and reflect on the labels that the Lord has for us and pray that he helps you to live out of those, and not the labels of the world.