Powerless 2 - Labeling the dimensions

The labels we put on ... others

As we go around our Celebrate Recovery small group circle, we introduce ourselves: Hi my name is ______, I am a believer in Jesus Christ, and I struggle with ______. When I switch to the teaching phase of this blog, I'll go into some more detail about why that format is so important.

Yesterday was "May the fourth", and as I mentioned before, I am a "computer guy". Well, that is how I am labeled by others, and I was amazed, myself, that I had let the holiday of the greatest sci-fi story pass me by! It's as my label of "Hello my name is SUPER GEEK" had fallen off.

But there are several labels that people have put on me. Some kind, some not so kind. Depending on the label they have of me is the stigma that they treat me with.  But one thing that has come to my attention lately is that whether they love me or hate me, most say the same thing that makes me seem unapproachable.

The labels we put on ... ourselves

Hello, my name is "hopeless introvert".  The thing that most people say about me is, "why do you have to be right all of the time?" For those who want to see me fail, this is said in spite. For those who are helped by me, this is said in thankfulness. Only a few people know why I am like this - and fewer who stick around for the reality of my struggles.

As that hopeless introvert, I have always tried to find the Answers to those problems around me.  Not so much trying to fix others' problems, but my own environment. Believing finding the solution to all my world's problems is what gives me relief from my depressive thoughts.

But I have accepted the label "introvert" in a way that is damaging to myself. I go into frenzied torments of "what if's" and "if only's" that plague my silence.  The explosion of a million dimensions and possibilities rushes at me at every bump in the road - sometimes for minutes, often longer depending on resources at my disposal.

It is because of this that I often have the right answer for everything, but I also have the frustration from going into this chaotic state - trying to make sense of the mess. I could fill a whole book of the labels I've put on myself and others have put on me - telling of how they are all wrong.

The label God wants us to put on

Coming out of these catatonic states, I am drained but have gained wisdom. Believing there is something wrong with me for not knowing these things and thinking others who are waiting for the answer do know, my response to answers seems cryptic to those asking the questions. Seeing the response from others throws me into another spell - where the first has increased my labeled "IQ", the second increases my "EQ". But neither growth is seen by those who have labeled me with an explicative. 

So, I look to what Jesus says in Luke 12:2-3 in a different way: "Whatever is covered up will be uncovered, and every secret will be made known. So then, whatever you have said in the dark will be heard in broad daylight." Instead of looking at it that my darkest "secrets" would be found out, I realize that I have only to realize that I am powerless and need only to trust that God will provide the answers - not Google and certainly not my sci-fi dimensions of "only ifs" that seem to be leading to some sort of dementia.

The label God wants me to put on, is "son".  Believing that God has the power and wisdom to overcome my ever increasing struggles is the label that I know I need to put on. Eventually, others will change their labels of me, but first I need to change my label of me to the one that the Son has bought for me.