by Pastor Joel Lawler

"Some men are Baptists, others Catholics; my father was an Oldsmobile man." - Ralphie, from the movie A Christmas Story.

This is a great line from a great movie. It is a part of our family Christmas tradition to watch this movie every Christmas Eve. There are many labels, categories and boxes that we put others and ourselves in. Driving down the road, it fascinates me to read bumper stickers. I often wonder why people feel the need to let the car behind them know who they are voting for, who their favorite team is, the school their child is an honor student, what college they attended.... Why are these things important enough to turn your car into a billboard? I just got back from South Carolina. It seemed to me that every car that was owned by someone who lived there had the state logo on it.

As I was eating lunch, I noticed that the restaurant sold tee-shirts with their name on it. Why would someone buy a shirt to advertise for the restaurant? Shouldn't they get paid for this or at least get the shirt for free? A lot of clothing stores sell tee-shirts and sweatshirts with their brand name on them. It is pure genius to get someone to buy your product to advertise your product.

What is the need that drives us to want to associate ourselves with something like a brand of clothing, sports team, political party or even a faith system? We

all do it.

One reason I believe we like our boxes is that there is comfort in conformity. If we can attach ourselves to a group, we are not alone. There are others like us in whom we share something in common. We put others in boxes so that we don't have to address them as a person. We can make assumptions based on the category that we have placed them in without ever getting to know them. This allows us to lazily dismiss them based on faulty assumptions.

We also feel a need to put others in tidy boxes as well. People are ranked by their income, nationality, race, age and many other attributes. When we do this we are dehumanizing the individual. They become just another member of a group that we have assigned them rather than the unique person that God created them to be.

I hate the phrase "Love the Sinner, hate the sin." Putting someone in the "Sinner Box" is not loving them. It is judgemental, ignorant and extremely arrogant and it is dead wrong. This phrase is the product of the nasty cancer of pride. This thought process not only belittles the person that it is directed towards, it also destroys the person whose mind is held captive by it. The phrase "Love the Sinner, hate the sin" is not compatible with the person of

Jesus in the Bible. It is counter to who He is and what He taught.

Jesus always addressed the individual person. He was not concerned with what group or category the person had been placed in. He was at a dinner gathering when a woman came and fell at his feet. The people around Him, noticed "the kind of woman she was" and that if Jesus knew her category He would not allow her to touch Him. He knew who she was and loved her.

No matter who you are, what you have done or not done, where you have been, Jesus loves you. You, the one reading this. You. He loves YOU. The boxes and categories are man made and not from God. He loves YOU. He wants you to know Him and to have a relationship with you. There is nothing that can separate you from the love of God. All the stuff that may make you think that you are unworthy has been taken care of. He loves YOU. With Him there are no ranks or favorites. No one has ever earned His love. Love that is earned is not love.

He loves YOU. Just as you are and right where you are and wants you to know his love for you.

Get out of the box and be the unique person God created you to be. Hopefully we will all grow close enough to our Father to learn to stop putting others in these ridiculous boxes and see them as God sees them and love them the way that He loves us. 
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