Moving Beyond Labels

There are blog posts that we want to write and there are those that won’t stop their incessant tapping on our brains or our hearts until we write them. This is the latter. Read on now that you’ve gotten my little disclaimer.

What with the government shutting down and all, there is plenty of partisan speak in the air and on the airwaves. Hearing the verbal barbs has made me grateful that long ago I stopped affiliating myself with any particular political ideology. I was tired of the baggage and assumptions that came with being a card-carrying member of either party. Instead of dubbing one good and the other evil, I began to see that—like the humans who run them—they are each a mixed bag of good, evil and everything in between. I found worthy candidates in both. I decided I didn’t want to limit my vision to the options that were amenable to the leaders of only one group. So I didn’t.

Still, there is another card I’ve carried with me all these years. Whether waving it about for all to see or hiding it deep within my pocket, I’ve been a card-carrying Christian all my life. Though I’ve done my fair share to denomination hopping, I’ve never turned in the Christian card—even when I doubted. Even when I was disappointed or offended by an act of hypocrisy or injustice within the church. But lately I’ve actually pulled that card out and thought about setting it down. Leaving it on a table and walking away.

Not because I had a miraculous conversion to another religion or an aversion to the truths that Jesus embodied, but simply because the label feels suddenly oppressive and heavier than I ever remember it feeling before. Because it has occurred to me that maybe it does no one any good for me to adopt a title that announces my religious affiliation to the world. In fact, maybe it actually does harm to me and to others who, by default, become the “outsider” to my “insider” status if they have chosen a different path. My allegiance lies, not with any humanistic construction or organization of spiritual truths, but with the truths themselves. Not with just the scripture that was canonized by a select group of humans, but with all sacred scripture.

Why are we so drawn to labels—to the neat little categories that help us make sense of the world? That reduce the rainbow of humanity to easily checked boxes? Why does it matter? Maybe the mystery is too much for us—the cloud of unknowing too frightening. Instead of experiencing God we theorize, postulate, prove and argue our way into a faith that makes sense. But if it makes sense—if it’s all demystified via our intellect—is it really faith?

Looking at the brightly colored “Coexist” logo, I am struck by the fact that some of the people with whom I find the greatest spiritual affinity are not Christians. Sprinkled liberally among the Jesus followers in my life are Buddhists, Muslims, Jews, atheists and agnostics. And coexist doesn’t adequately express the way I hope to live alongside them. I don’t want to just “live separately and independently but peaceably,” the connotation of coexistence. I want to learn from their unique experience without ever insisting or insinuating that my way is better. I want to walk beside them, without having that nagging evangelistic thought I should be dragging them along my own path.

So just for today, I am setting down that well-worn card. I am walking away from its label and toward those in my life that embody the grace and truth I want to embody. Maybe I’ll replace it with one that reads, “God bless everyone—no exceptions.”

Namaste.

Want to explore these ideas further? Read more about using yoga as a tool to experience the divine in ways that go beyond the intellect in my book, Sophia Rising Awakening Your Sacred Wisdom Through Yoga.