Five semesters ago I began my freshmen year of college. When I entered campus I was filled with expectations and hopes for the coming years. Much has changed since that fateful day that I first stepped out of the Chapel doors and walked over to the beckoning group of friends sitting in the grass. When I started college I was filled with ideas and refused to be held down by labels. I grew up in a world where labels were rarely used and my church was filled with people of all sorts of "labels", but it was as if they did not actually exist. A wise woman at my church once described my home church as the place that "labels" were taken off and hung on the coat rack until the end of the service.
So as I embarked on this journey to independence I began with only one label which was "Christian." That label alone has many positive and negative connotations with it and I spent many nights pondering if I should even call myself that. Some may ask if I was having a crisis of faith, but I would say quite the opposite. I knew fully well what I believed, but I was having a crisis of trying to label it. Should I call myself "Christ Follower"? "Peacemaker"? "Follower of the One True King"? "Nazarene"? Before college labels were nothing to me and I was able to embrace that, but now I began to wonder. I managed to survive my freshmen year with this mentality that I did not need a label and people would know who I was by my actions. This mentality is why one of my favorite age old hymns was They'll Know we are Christians by our Love. That is all that I wanted.
As I progressed in the academic world I quickly noted that labels were everywhere. People, including myself, were receiving scholarships for simply choosing the label "Nazarene." Connections were made based on what label you were. I soon learned that in order to survive in this world you needed to have certain labels. In order to gain one must embrace the labels they have always been given. I also noted that when arguments arose the label you had either reinforced the argument or killed it. I began rethinking this whole idea of labels, to which led to taking on labels that I thought defined myself.
Of course, I started with the basics: Christian and Nazarene. As I began to explore what I looked for in a Nazarene church I attached another label: Liturgical; meaning I felt that I best enjoyed liturgical worship services. As the year went on the election season approached and since I was at the age of voting a new label was added. Throughout the year I read more blogs, news articles, and theology books and began labeling myself based on views that I seemed to agree with. I started calling myself "Liberal", "Pacifist", "Independent", "Emergent", "Hippy", and so on. This list would only grow the more that I thought I could identify myself with a certain group or affiliation. The empty "label" slate was filling up by the minute with one new idea after another.
Then the questions arose. "Why are you this?" "Why aren't you that?" "Are you sure you are really that?" I began to realize that I did not often fully understand all the connotations that came with the labels I gave myself. I found that I was often confusing people on what my stances were. To some people I seemed liberal and to others I seemed mildly conservative. More often than not these labels required a lot of explaining. If people did not have the time to hear an explanation they would just create assumptions on what my labels meant. One evening as I was contemplating all of this it hit me. The labels we give ourselves create preconceived personas that others project on us. Whether or not they are accurate representations of ourselves, they are what people see with these labels. It was this realization that has brought me here today to record this decision.
I am giving up labels again.
This may be a challenge, but I am ready for the task. Instead of wearing myself down with all of these labels that describe who I am, I am going to let my actions do the talking. I am going to let the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart be pleasing unto the Lord. Not my labels, but my actions. I am a "Christian" because I follow Jesus Christ the true rightful King, I am a member of the "Nazarene" denomination, and my name is Tanner. Want to know about my beliefs? Talk to me and see what I do. I hope to overcome the negative connotations that arise from the label "Christian" and instead pray that you will know that I am a Christian by my love.
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