Guilty as charged

Awhile back, I wrote about my being a centrist and I still think that label might be big enough to fit; it may be a bit snug at times but if I had to have a label (which I don’t!) then centrist would be the one. From the center, you can embrace (or reject) both the left and the right. But, enough of labels! Labels are a lazy person’s way of sorting and identifying all of the people we have some little knowledge of and I am guilty of doing just that. Conservative, right wing, liberal, left wing, commie, pinko, fascist, etc. Everyone gets a label. Yet, I am none of those by strict definition. I am all of those by practice

Do we label the people we know very well? I would say, rarely. I know that some of my friends and relatives would seem, at first glance, to fit within the confines of a label, but I know them and I know that they have other attributes that make them too big for a label.

I don’t know about you, but I’m not going to be labeled anymore. I refuse. Call me what you want; it’s your loss, not mine. There is more to me than a label. Accepting a label constrains me, makes me smaller. Think about it; are you a conservative? Is that really you? Isn’t there more about you that I should know? You say that you’re a liberal? What does that mean in your life? In your everyday life?

Just like fingerprints and DNA, there are no two alike. God doesn’t have an assembly line. We are all unique in His eyes and He loves us. I should strive to be more like Him. And there’s the rub…they say that the devil is in the details and so it is. Striving is easy to say but darn difficult to do. I can see myself getting into ethical difficulties as I allow no labeling of myself but am quick to label others. Ouch!