Labels

 Who am I? I suppose it depends on which label you care to look at. I was born in England to English parents and so I was conveniently slotted under the banner of, 'Church of England' and labeled, 'Protestant'. But why? I don't know. Neither of my parents were church goers or had Jesus in their lives. I suppose it was just one of those conveniences at the time of the registration of my birth...."O, just put 'Protestant', it was good enough for me it'll be good enough for him".

So I grew up in a forest of Catholics and Protestants and Methodists and Baptists and and and... divisions of the church and subdivisions and branches of subdivisions; amalgamations of subdivisions; The Church of something and The Holy Blessed Church of something else.

At last, the time and wisdom came that I was able to strip away all the labels and pigeonholes. It was a kind of, 'looking for my spiritual roots' thing ... and there He was, in the clearing; not a label, not the head of a department of God, not the CEO of 'Religion UK Ltd'; there He was, the Son of God, Jesus Christ, my Savoir.

So, who am I? I'm a disciple. No more nor any less than Peter or Matthew, Mark, Luke, John. And there you are also, a disciple, completely free of earthly church politics. So shake off your ecclesiastical chains and rejoice in your direct, one-to-one relationship with our Lord, Jesus.