Confessional time. High school was a time of conforming. Even back before the internet and social media young people wanted to fit in and doing so many times left teens feeling like you had to conform to a group's identity or social norms. Jocks wore letter jackets all day long and then when you got a steady girlfriend you gave them your letter jacket to wear as a sign of your relationship. "Preps" wore Izod shirts with little alligators over the left chest pocket area, and those who adhered to the land and farming wore Wranglers, boots, and big, shiny belt buckles. Probably the worst example of trying to fit in with the "in" crowd was the “Members Only” jacket. I mean it said it right there on the little label over the left chest pocket area. I know in our social media driven society this quest to fit in has magnified since everyone can see you instantaneously, so your clique as it might have been referred to in latter times can actually be global. In all honesty, those tags and labels only label us on the outside, I was no more of a jock than the wrestling mat I sweat and bleed on. We are who we are on the inside, what we wear and what we purchase is our attempt to convince others that we are who we want them to think we are, the concern is do the two identities match?
Think about it, as adults we do the same thing as most of us did just like me in high school. We buy a certain make and model of car because it shows a status, we purchase a home in a certain subdivision because that's where the cool kids’ school is zoned. Clothes, shoes, sunglasses, the list goes on and on all have a status connected to them. If you think about it we even eat certain foods from certain restaurants because that is where you go if you are cool or in the “in crowd”. Example given, Starbucks, I'm just saying. I'm not throwing an anti-commercial campaign here, but I just want us to pause and reflect a little on what message are we most interested in sending out about our lives? Should it take a label to define us? Is it more crucial that people see us and know us by a bunch of labels or would it be better if they could see us by the way our heart aligns with the example of what a true man or woman should display?
Give this a thought for just a minute, when I described the Izod and Members Only apparel I noted that the label was sewn on the left chest pocket area remember? If you attend a conference or other meeting and name tags are provided where do most people place that sticker? Over the left chest pocket area, correct? Isn't this the same location of a critical part of our human makeup? Our heart, the blood pumping, life giving organ that makes us a living creature and is affectionately connected to our "love" factor. "I give you my heart forever" or "If you leave me, it will break my heart" should ring familiar with pretty much all of us.
So, if a label is going to define us and if we are going to wear that label over our most critical body part then why don't we take the time to assure that our label provides a true view of who we are and what we believe in? We should want our exterior labels to match our interior heart, and to do so we have to be transformed to what we were created to be instead of conforming to what this world says we should be. Paul said it best in Romans 12:2 "Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will." This is our goal, if our label on the outside does not align with the heart of God on the inside, we are in need of an alignment to the One that made us in His image for a purpose and with a plan. Renew your mind, be transformed, we are called to be different, but not different for the clothes we wear or the cars we drive, but by living out what God purposed us to be and do.
Stop, slow down, and do a self-reflection, are you defined by the label that you are conforming to be, or have you been transformed by the renewing of your mind, body, and soul? If so share it, if not, maybe it is time for a label alignment. "Servant", "Reborn", "Child of God" are all worthy labels to be attached to who we are and how we serve the One that purposed your life.
Coach Carter
No comments:
Post a Comment