CP 186 Truth in labelling…

This week I bring you some more bits n’ pieces that I’ve heard about the way people label and get labelled in words.

A lawyer name Strange lay dying. His colleague of many years sat glumly by his bed. “Have you thought about what you would like on your gravestone?” he asked gently. ‘Yes”, whispered the lawyer, “All I want to have on it is, ‘Here lies an honest lawyer.’” “Is that all?” asked his friend. “Not even your own name? Why only the words, ‘Here lies an honest lawyer?’” “Well,” replied the lawyer, “People will read those words and say, ‘That’s strange!’” (Sorry friends...really sorry.)

  

On the Saturday before Mother’s Day in May this year a couple of the grandchildren were with us. Tahlia and Jordan were playing ‘mother and child’, with the twist that boy Jordan, age 3, was mum, and girl Tahlia, age 5, was child. It was a perfect opportunity for older sister to commandeer all the toys from ‘mother’. At some point Jordan felt the need for some toys of his own and headed off to get them. Here is what I heard ‘child Tahlia’ say:

“Jordan, mothers don’t have toys! Mothers don’t have fun! They only work!”

A few weeks ago I was in conversation with a friend of many years. I asked Graeme (not his real name) what it was that his wife appreciated most about him? He answered easily. “She likes that I care for her, and my sense of humour – I manage to put a smile on her face every day.” About an hour later he was telling me that he recently needed to find his own mobile number – so he looked in his wife’s phone and found it… under “Grumpy”! I don’t know which version I’m supposed to believe.

Last week I got a phone call from the daughter of a bloke I like. With good humour she said, “If you want to understand my dad think of that old saying, ‘Street angel – house devil.’” I thought to myself that my kids might sometimes have been tempted to lay that moniker on me!

Here’s one from my first parish in South Oz, (with apologies to the Kleinig family). One of my elders, commenting on observable family traits, said to me, “The Kleinigs are ‘sudden.’” That one reminds me of the well known thing about people from Crete. “All Cretans are liars. You are a Cretan. Therefore you are a liar!” Neither of those two observations is ever going to be 100% true.

I guess nothing should surprise us. Even Jesus noted that when John the Baptist came, neither eating nor drinking, he was labelled as having a demon, and when the Son of Man came, eating and drinking, he was accused of being a glutton and a drunkard!

However, here’s something to think about. Don’t know where I got it from but it’s true. “The wise person knows that in every bucketful of unfair criticism there is always a grain of truth.” The old saying tells us that if the cap fits, we should wear it. But take note, don’t wear it to your grave. Wear it instead to the Cross, to your Lord, whose cross-released blood brings us forgiveness and promises cleansing. It is truly liberating to have somewhere to go where our complete honesty is met not with condemnation but mercy. Check Romans 8:1 for all the assurance you’ll ever need.

Have a blessed-in-Him week.

Fred