What's in a name?

At least that's what I was thinking as I was happily creating labels with my label-maker. Silver labels, metallic pink labels, metallic blue labels, clear labels, white paper labels. I've had my label-maker for about 5 years now and never had I had so much fun making labels.

One of the reasons I was enjoying making my labels is because I was discovering how easy it was to retrieve and put away the items in the containers I was labeling. It seems like that would make perfect sense, right? Well, sense has darted this way and that as I vainly tried to catch hold of it for several years now! But finally I held it captive. At least in this area.

It came to me how nice it was to have labels the night I decided to create for myself some "books" for decorating ideas. I have long been a fan of decorating magazines. Over the past 6 to 8 years, I've picked my favorites, bought them, looked at them over and over as if they were classic literature and kept them. I decided this summer it would be easier to utilize the ideas in them if I tore out the pictures and organized them by room. That's where file folders come in handy. But, to go one step further, I decided to go through all my torn out pictures and articles and choose those that would apply specifically to this house. So I rummaged through my night stand where I found some comb-bound poly "books" with pages like pocket pages. One book is for the first floor, the second book for the second floor. I labeled each book. Then each pocket page received a label like "Front yard and entrance," "Entryway," "Dining Room," "Living Room," "Breakfast Room," etc. (No reason to list all the areas of my house!)

Then came the sorting. After about an hour, I had two books of decorating and project ideas for this house. The next day I went through all the paint chips that I have collected since we worked on the house in Alabama and when I found a color that I might like for a certain room, it went into a smaller pocket in front of the main pocket on a pocket page. These smaller pockets are made for discs, but they hold paint chips beautifully!

Now I can add my graph paper floor plan of each room, or my graph paper drawing of a project for each room in the pockets, instructions for a project, brochures, information I gathered online, etc. to each room's respective pocket. When I g to the store, I can grab my books. So much easier than taking along an armful of magazines that have been flagged with Post-It flags.

So, what's this got to do with my label-maker and "what's in a name?"

When I decided to work on this little decorating book project, I knew I would need my label-maker. In my recent obsession with organizing our school room, I had made a label for a photo box in which I put my label-maker and all those lovely label-making tapes. So I grabbed my two poly-books, gathered my magazine pages, walked over to the shelves and after reading the labels on the photo boxes, took down the one with the label-maker. When the project was completed, I put the label-maker and supplies back in the box and put it away.

It was so easy! I knew what I wanted and I found the box with the label for what I wanted and I got it. No rummaging through a box of other items. No looking in drawers or under piles of other things. It was right there, labeled so I knew exactly what I was getting even though the box was opaque.

I have heard that we should not label some things, though. Labeling people is a no-no. How many times have I heard someone gasp or seen a look of dismay cross a listener's ears when the preacher says that someone who is sinning is a sinner? "Oh, we can't call them sinners! They are just uninformed." But you know, if we aren't willing to see sinners as sinners, then how are we going to lead them to salvation? "This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners..." (1 Timothy 1:15 NKJV) We have to look at those who have not yet accepted Christ as sinners or we won't be compelled to teach them. They are not "just" our family, our co-workers, our neighbors, our acquaintances, or even our "enemies." They are sinners who are lost.

And what about this idea of sin? Two married people who are not married to each other and yet are having a relationship that was meant only for married people are "having an affair." No, they are committing adultery. Two people of the same sex who are having sexual relations with each other are "gay." No, they are homosexuals. Someone who takes money from the office is "in dire circumstances" and "needs our sympathy." No, though I will help him and his family with whatever means I have, he is a thief. A man forces a woman to have "sexual relations" with him and he is "passionate." No, he is a rapist.

Sin is sin and sinners are sinners and I don't want to be the one at Judgment who tries to explain it any other way.

And how many of us who have accepted Christ and his salvation have avoided attaching a label to ourselves? If we have left Christ, we have fallen "short of grace" and are "defiled." (Hebrews 12:15) If we ever think that this can't happen to us, we need to "take heed lest we fall." (1 Corinthians 10:12) Sin is sin for Christians, too.

I know of a man. He lusted after a woman. He took something that did not belong to him. He committed adultery. He murdered a man. When he was approached about these sins, what was his response? Did he talk about how God had made him this way or society had oppressed him? Or about how awful his parents had treated him when he was a boy? No, he said, "I have sinned against the Lord." (2 Samuel 12:13) He called his sins what they were--sins. Can we do less and expect the Lord to look upon us as men or women "after his own heart?"

The Bible is full of labels. People are righteous or people are sinners. Works of the flesh are adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries. Fruits of the Spirit are love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. (Galatians 5:19-23) Those who deserve death are those who are filled with unrighteousness, sexual immorality, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness, envy, murder, strife, deceit, evil-mindedness; they are backbiters, haters of God, violent, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, undiscerning, untrustworthy, unloving, unforgiving, unmerciful. (Romans 1:28-31) Things that are true, noble, just, pure, lovely, of good report, virtuous, and praiseworthy are to occupy our minds. (Philippians 4:8)

Labels tell us what things are. God tells us which labels we are to spend our time pursuing and which we are to find shame in having attached to us. Maybe it's time to get out our spiritual label-makers.