Transcript:
Hello, welcome to Walking in Step with God. I’m Steve McDonald. Today’s message is titled ‘Connect Beyond Labels’ as we kick off a brand new series, ‘Living in the Light’.
This series is dedicated to exploring what it truly means to carry God’s light within us as we navigate the practical, day-to-day moments of our lives, allowing His truth to guide every interaction and relationship. Over the coming weeks, we will learn how to connect beyond the labels society imposes on us, find the courage to embrace our true authenticity, and gain the spiritual clarity needed to see through the shadows of doubt and fear. Ultimately, this journey is about helping you find your unique place in God’s kingdom, walking confidently in His light that shines within you.
In today’s message, we explore how the strength of our faith empowers us to break through personal and societal barriers.
In today’s day and age, society has created an abundance of labels to categorize and classify communities in our world. It is an unfortunate reality because labels can be used to dismiss entire groups of people for no reason other than the label society has chosen for them.
These labels also contribute to and reinforce the biases that all of us have to some extent. None of us are 100% immune to having some level of bias against a type of individual or community, in part because society has normalized prejudice.
Labels can be associated with many aspects of the human condition: race, gender identity, financial status, political leanings, age, education, and even physical or mental health.
While it may be unavoidable to be confronted with societal labels on a day-to-day basis, we can decide how we treat others regardless of the label that society has given them.
By moving past societal labels, we open ourselves to a deep internal transformation rooted in spiritual truth, ultimately finding the true freedom that comes from living as God intended.
Today, let’s explore how our walk with God can equip us to show love, compassion, and support to everyone, regardless of the labels that society has given them. Let’s learn about ways that our faith can help us meet people where they are and share God’s Light consistently with -everyone- we meet.
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As we embark on this journey together, sharing the light of faith, we believe God calls each of us to participate in His work in unique ways. We understand that giving back to God is a core part of your spiritual life. Many believe in supporting the place that feeds their soul. If that place is here with us, we invite you to make your contribution to this ministry. We would be truly honored to be entrusted with your offering.
Here is how you can help. I’ll be right back.
Welcome back. Let’s continue ‌our discussion of how we can connect beyond labels.
Examine Your Heart
As I touched on earlier, I imagine all of us have biases based on the labels that surround us as we navigate our world. If we are in an environment where we are told how to feel about a particular group or community, it is natural for us to develop biases.
An important first step in connecting beyond labels is to identify the biases in our own hearts. As someone who has been walking with God for many years, I admit there is still a residue of bias that remains from a lifetime of using labels. The good news is that I know the areas of my heart that still need work, and I can actively choose to confront these biases, knowing that God would have me treat everyone with love, respect, and compassion.
Remember, if we have developed biases, we have been taught those biases. We were not born wired to treat one person differently than another because of how society labels them. This is inherently taught to us in our homes, our schools, our careers, and in our social circles. What we have been taught, we can change. We can lean on God’s teachings to transform the biases learned by society into a heart of compassion and love. God can teach us how to meet someone where they are.
You may find that you have developed a bias about a particular community that ‌is difficult to overcome. The good news is that you can go to God in these times. Ask God to soften your heart cast away the biases you have learned. Ask God to open your eyes to see another individual as being just as precious to God as you are. Pray, asking God to give you opportunities to interact with others in a way that will challenge and disrupt your prejudices.
God knows how you arrived at the biases you have now, and He can help you re-calibrate your mindset to treat everyone with the same level of love and compassion.
Practice Compassion
We just spoke about having love and compassion for everyone. Let’s dive deeper into the idea of compassion and what that actually looks like. Compassion can take the form of support, active listening, showing understanding, and lifting the spirit of others when they are down.
Let’s examine a label that is used all over the world because it exists in nearly every community, large and small: homeless. Unfortunately, there is an epidemic of homelessness in most cities of the United States. These are persons who have no other choice but to live and survive on our streets.
Once upon a time, before my walk with God, I confess that I had developed a bias toward the homeless. I would walk around them. I would avoid eye contact with them. One could say that I treated them as though they were a fixture on the sidewalk. My train of thought was that the homeless should be avoided and ignored. I learned this bias by watching others ignore them, so it became very normal for me to ignore them as well..
As I walk with God today, I understand the importance of helping those who are in need. Now, when I encounter someone who is homeless, I see an opportunity to potentially help someone. It may be offering a meal, groceries, or even money so that they can acquire their basic needs for living. In fact, I welcome and ask God to dispatch me to these opportunities, knowing that he will equip me with the resources I need to provide for that individual.
I will admit that while I’ve come a long way in transforming the bias I’ve had toward the homeless, I still have work to do. I recognize that from time to time; I see an opportunity to help someone who appears to be homeless and I conclude that I’m too busy or just not in the mood to help them. So I continue to ask God to forgive me for these times and remind me of my request for Him to dispatch me to these opportunities.
What labels do you find yourself using when you are out and about in the world? Is there a bias that you know lives in your heart toward a community or a group of people that you actually encounter from time to time? What can you do to challenge your bias and treat these individuals with compassion?
If you don’t know what biases you have developed, I invite you to ask God to reveal them and to give you opportunities to confront these biases. Ask God to give you the tools—emotionally, psychologically, and otherwise—to treat this group of individuals the same as you would wish to be treated.
Ask God to soften your heart and explore opportunities for compassion acceptance for those that you once would have rejected.
Lead with Inclusion
As we wrap up this message, the last concept I’d like to discuss with you for connecting beyond labels is to lead with inclusion.
As we’ve touched on today, the biases we hold are typically taught to us by others in our households, our social circles, and more broadly in our society. If we are consistently surrounded by individuals who treat a particular group of people a certain way, we are much more likely to fall in line and treat that group the same way.
How can we push back against these learned biases? I want to invite you to lead with inclusion.
By this, I mean being intentional about creating a space for those who fall under different labels than you. I am suggesting that we create a safe place for groups of individuals who may be marginalized or dismissed by other groups of individuals.
Leading with inclusion means meeting -everyone- where they are, even if they have different beliefs, financial status, political affiliation, or careers than you. It means treating everyone in every situation with the same level of kindness, respect, and dignity you would want for yourself.
Keep in mind that the very communities that taught you to form and hold a bias may turn against you when you show compassion and kindness to the groups your community rejects. We can prepare for this by asking God to equip us with the words to speak when we are challenged by our communities. Your community may expect you to uphold the status quo for the prejudices they feel are normal..
We can ask God to equip us with the confidence and courage to do what He would have us do, which is to show love to everyone. God will help us walk in a way that shows everyone His light. God will comfort us when we are rejected by those who once embraced us. Please do not let societal norms and peers be a source of truth for bias against any group. Lean on God as your source of truth, asking Him to show you and equip you with everything you need to treat -everyone- with respect, kindness, and compassion.
Wrap Up
In today’s message, we explored several ways to connect beyond the labels that society places on groups of individuals.
We are not born knowing how to hate; we learn how to hate. The biases we form are taught to us throughout our lives. While we cannot help what we have been taught, we can change our minds when we understand that God would have us love everyone equally, just as we expect to be loved. All of us should make time to take an inventory of our biases and ask God for ways to confront them.
We may find that certain biases run deep because they were taught to us from a very early age, but God can soften our hearts and help us see the truth. He can help us understand the importance of treating everyone with respect and compassion, just as we wish to be treated. We can even ask God to reveal the areas of our hearts that need work to be more accepting of others. God can help us reset our hearts and minds to meet people where they are, even if they are very different from us.
We also discussed the idea of practicing compassion. There will be times when we are faced with the choice of how to treat someone who belongs to a group of people for whom we may have formed a bias. Even if this bias was stronger in our past, it is in these moments that we have an opportunity to treat them the same way as we would wish to be treated.
There will be other times where we see a group of individuals who are treated poorly by others because of the labels society has placed on them. In these times, we have an opportunity to go against the grain and treat those individuals differently than they have been treated by others. God can lead us to opportunities to be a vessel for Him and show groups of individuals love when other choose to show them hate.
Lastly, we talked about the idea of leading with inclusion. This takes compassion a step further by intentionally creating space for those groups with labels that are shunned or outright rejected by the majority. Leading with inclusion allows us ways to combat societal norms of rejection and hate, and to create spaces that harbor support, comfort, and unity.
Finding a way to be inclusive with groups of individuals may be challenging for a number of reasons. The good news is that we can also go to God in these situations. We can ask Him to lead us to opportunities to help groups of individuals in an inclusive way. We can ask
Him for the resources, plans, and guidance to create spaces that will harbor community for those who are shunned and rejected by society.
In all the areas of discussion today, we learned that there are so many ways to ensure that we can play an active role in meeting anyone where they are, regardless of their labels. God does not use labels with anyone, and we can aim to walk with that posture in society as well.
It may be difficult at first, and meeting people where they are may cause friction and even strife with people that are close to you. When in doubt, seek God first with all things. Ask Him to comfort you and walk with you as you seek to do His work in the world.
Ask Him to show you how to share his light with others, including those who are rejected by society and those who harbor feelings of resentment and hatred toward these same groups.
Only God’s love can overcome divisions in our society and give us the tools we need to maintain unity in our community.
Ask God today to show you ways to connect with groups in your community and share His love and His light.
Are you interested in discovering more about the guidance offered in this message? Learn more in the companion article Going Deeper with the Word:Discover Your Inner Calm
