Church Without Labels – The beginning
Over 10 likes, so, as promised I will write a book and you can join in. Lets start at the beginning:
The question: Would it be possible to eliminate a lot of labels so we can stand more relaxed and unwind in the world, without getting completely detached from God?
The sub question: What kind of labels do we as Christians put on people and situations around us and was does the Bible say about them? How important are they anyway?
The cause: Redeemed Christians who don’t look free at all because they are very occupied with right and wrong and avoiding sin. As aids labels are put on everything; this you can do, this you can’t do, this is wrong and that too. Or to put it in a more modern way; ‘You can better do this’ and ‘this is what we like’.
When I look at myself, I used to be very occupied by this. All my activities I measured against a yardstick; was it 
good enough? Shouldn’t I have been more kind, give more time to more important things like Bible reading, donate more money, try harder? The result was that rules determined my life. Always there was that little voice; ‘not good enough’.
Because I was so preoccupied by rules, by doing what I thought was important to God, I didn’t ask God what He thought about it. Didn’t I have the Bible, The Big Book of Rules, Gods letter to me, Gods assignment to me? So my prayer life consisted of not much more than asking for forgiveness, asking for provision and a little gratitude.
At a certain time the following thought occurred; “Because you are so occupied with living according to the rules, I have no space to lead your life”. That hit me hard, I can tell you. I saw myself with my nose in the books and God trying to attract my attention. I feel like weeping (and I did).
All those time I was so busy with myself that I missed out on God. I HAD TO do better, I HAD TO be better. But that was a lie, God wanted me, my attention, my love, just the way I was. He wanted to do life together with me, being involved in what I was doing. ‘Not good enough’ isn’t in His dictionary since Jesus. (Just don’t start about a holy life right now. It is something I totally like and it will have its place in the book)
Realising this was very liberating for me. It was the beginning of a voyage of discovery along every label in my life. The one after the other was questioned, often resulting in removal of the label. Now I am 15 years on this journey and it seems like I see more and more labels. Not just my labels, but also in the church and in the lives of other Christians. Recognising and questioning labels helped me enormous and the unwind life that follows is something I wish for everyone.
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