And this is where my heart breaks...

The candle light flickered as they came to the altar. Preps and nerds, freaks and emo, rich and poor...

From the ages of 13 to their 40's they came and on this night these differences no longer mattered because we all shared a dark and hidden secret in common. We all had labels, lies really, which had taken root in our lives and begun to define us.

Worthless

Shy

Fat

Ugly

Stupid

Slut

Used, and unloved.

Not worth your time...

And the labels continued as the stones dropped into the water. Some were written in tears and others in anger.

All were confessed from deep wounds cut and forged by the words that came from a tongue waging war...

These labels may have been based on choices these girls and women once made, but the true travesty is when later these vicious labels took root and defined the girl and her future. 

These lies devoured and gorged on each one's hopes and dreams until she had been bled dry and found  hopeless.

Truth was a distant echo...

What was the truth about her identity anymore?

Words, labels, and the gossip that falls so easily from our lips is devastating and its leprous effects are lasting.

Do you realize what we are really doing though?

We are tearing down the very handiwork of God.

You see God labors over his precious creations daily. Minute by minute He is carefully clearing away the rubble, and laying a sure foundation built on His truths. Building brick by brick with care because each of these children is one of His beautiful masterpieces.

That’s you and me friends.

Yet, we are so very quick to tear each other down through hurt, anger, revenge, and our own deep wounds.

Sometimes it's someone else's foundation we choose to wreak our havoc on and other times it can be our own. We ravage it and plant the seeds of destruction that will soon crack the mortar and start the walls to crumbling down when enough pressure is applied...

And these seeds we are spewing come from one source...the enemy.

He is a liar from the beginning, and a murderer who wants to steal our joy. He roams around this earth looking for those whom he can devour and kill, but here is the real question for us...  Do we know Jesus?

I mean do we really know Him? 

Because as believers we should be following His example right?

 What was His response to the ones who wore these very labels?

The Slut?

The Worthless?

The Liar?

The woman caught in the very act of sleeping with a married man. Who was grabbed from a bed still warm and then dragged out to be publicly humiliated and stoned.

Jesus dismissed her accusers by pointing to the sin in all of us. He offered her forgiveness and told her to sin no more.

And the woman scoffed at for weeping over his feet and anointing his head with oil. The one that the men in the room dismissed as a worthless sinner...

He called attention to her faithfulness. He pointed out the depths of her gratefulness that led her to bravely walk into this religiously self righteous leader's home, just to thank Jesus for His amazing gift of grace, love, and forgiveness.

And the liar?

The chief tax collector, the man people despised because he not only collected the taxes for Rome, but was lining his own wealthy over-flowing pockets by charging even more from the poor.

Oh how the people despised him.

Wouldn't you?

But, the wealthy tax collector had heard about Jesus… that Jesus was coming to his town and a deep chasm broke open within him. He knew with every fiber of his being he had to see this mysterious Jesus. So much so, that at the cost of losing his standing and respect in wealthy society, he climbed a tree in hope of just catching a glimpse of him.

Jesus, who had every right to yell at this putrid excuse of a man, instead told him while he was still up in the tree He wanted to have dinner with him that very night...In front of everyone.

Jesus, You were so the King of the shock and awe.

Son of God, You turn our notion of justice on its head.

In each account these people's lives were radically changed by encounters with the living God who chose to see past their labels and love them right where they were. Faith and repentance followed in a beautiful mix that replaced their muddied and hopeless past with freedom, hope, and a new life.

So what about you? Will you make war on labels my friends?

Can we, like these beautiful teen girls and women I met the other night, cast down our stones with their slanderous labels and say no more?

Will you wage war instead with Truth and Love?

 This is a two part series so more on this soon friends… Hope is around the bend.

Are you struggling too friend?

Will you take a moment in prayer and ask God to reveal the lies and labels in your life that are not from Him?

Will you name them and cast them down with us today and say no more?

I am linking with intentional.me , wednesdays word