So once again my church knocked it
out of the park with an awesome experience and lesson at Switch last night.
They kicked it off with some local up and coming rappers J and ended it with our
Youth Pastor sharing her beautiful testimony. The night was all about the labels
that we are given and how they affect us in life. Some of us are the nerds, the
jocks, the dork, the fat kid, or in my case the kid with no ankles…..yeah that’s
right I have cankles! Quick
definition: calf-ankles, or in my case; Crosson-ankles, because the entire
Crosson family has them. Kind of a funny, but ridiculous, label that I lived
with for a while. I can remember asking a girl in high school if she would go
out with me. Her answer……”You have no ankles!” Really, that’s what you’re
looking for in life, a guy with well-defined ankles. Anyways, back to the point
of the story. Labels are sometimes true and sometimes they’re not, but we
decide if they define us or not.
When it comes to our labels, the
first thing we need to do is look and decide if they are accurate or not. If it’s
a bad label, but it is true, then we need to think about how we can change it.
Can it be changed? Well we’ve (the entire Crosson family) found that for some
reason there is not a lot you can do about cankles.
Not really sure why, maybe it’s some genetic mutation that my Grandpa picked up
from working at the Conoco refinery, but they’re not going away. But that’s
where you take the next step. If the label you have been given is true but is
something that cannot be changed then you have to look at that label and decide
if it is something that matters. Do my cankles
define who I am; do they make me who I am? NO!!!!! I am NOT my cankles, and they are not me. The best
way to defeat these labels is to look at who God says you are. The best way I
can tell you to find this answer is to find you a life verse. Find a verse that
describes who you are, or who you want to be…….and then become it. I mean let’s
face it, if you are a believer than you realize that the Word is the truth. So
if you are to believe any label……..wouldn’t you rather believe the truth,
instead of all of those lies.
So what’s your life verse? Do you
have one? (If not, you really should find one) Mine is 1 Peter 3: 8-9: Finally,
all of you, be like-minded, be sympathetic, love one another, be compassionate
and humble. Do not repay evil with evil or insult with insult. On the contrary,
repay evil with a blessing, because to this you were called so that you may
inherit a blessing.
For me this life verse is two-fold.
One, it’s a constant reminder of what God has called me to be, of how he wants
me to live my life amongst others. How he wants me to treat others, and how he
wants me to love as he loves (God is Love). Second, it gives me a goal;
something to work towards. If I keep this verse on my heart at all times it
makes it easier to treat people the way they should be treated. Having
something in writing normally results in that something coming true. My goal is
written in the most important place, I’m hoping it comes true.
As I told my small group last
night, when you think of your label or labels, think about what people will say
of you at your funeral. Imagine yourself sitting at your own funeral listening
to the pastor and your loved ones talking about you. What are they saying? My
guess is that they won’t be bringing up your cankles, but will they have anything extraordinary to say about
you. “He gave his life to God and the people around him.” “He treated everyone
with love and kindness.” “He was a true blessing to all of us, even people he
didn’t know.” You may say, “Wow, that’s a big order to fill”. You know what? It
is, but so is becoming the creator/owner of one of the biggest software
companies or working your tail off to become one of the best receivers in the
NFL when all the college coaches told you that you were too small to play with
the big boys. As you begin to fulfill your God given label, you will start to
lose your man given label. I mean, I don’t think that either of these two are
called a nerd or a small fry anymore. Do you?
It doesn’t matter how BIG you think
the label is, if it is what God has called you to be, than be it. And by the
way…….I can do everything through Christ, who gives me strength (Phil 4:13), so
go for it. Become that label that you are called to be, because with Christ in
your life you CAN become that label.
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