Faith and Labels

"The supporting evidence either makes the cross the single biggest hoax of all time, or the hope of all humanity."

- Max Lucado

Something that has been ever-growing within me during the past few weeks is my love of God. God - the eternal, everlasting, divine, supernatural, all powerful, all knowing, the-list-could-go-on. Yes, the God of the Bible, the God of Christendom. I cannot personally fathom a world without God, as far as I see, it just makes sense.

Over that past few years I have seen many "Christians" stray away from the label "Christian" and rather supplement it with "Son/Daughter of Christ" etc. For example: When I say Christian, you say? Probably Westboro Baptist Church, maybe hypocrite? With such a negative response it is no wonder why someone would want to distance themselves from the label "Christian".

But we have devoted so much time to finding the label that suits us, or doesn't suit us, that we seemed to have neglected the message behind the variety of labels. Let me tell you, your label just gives you something to fall back on when you don't understand your own beliefs. When your asked "What does it mean to be a Christian?" you are already labeled Christian so you don't see the need, or rather you don't know how, to explain your belief, your faith, your whatever it may be.

We rely on our label to do all the talking for us. The "I can go through the motions and never really need to know what I believe" mentality has to stop, because it is far more common than you think, and all it leads to is a big crash. Let's put this into perspective: You attend every class all year, you listen to the lectures but you never fully understand what you are doing. You can get by like this for a while, but eventually, when the test comes along you are going to crash. Same deal with your faith, you can only fake it for so long. Own it, make it yours.

Stop worrying about what you are called, Christian, Christ Follower, whatever it may be and begin to understand your faith and what it means. Begin to open up your Bible and live out the teachings of Christ.