Uncovery: Rethinking Recovery One Day at a TimeSample

Labels are intensely polarizing, especially the ones we place on ourselves and others. Smart or dumb. Good or bad. Clean or dirty. Fast or slow. Affixing a good label on a person can be just as damaging as a bad one because good people are good…until they aren’t. And when people cease to walk out a good label as we expect, our brains literally don’t know what to do with it.

The lie of labeling begins as early as elementary school. You likely knew you were either a good kid or a bad kid. If you were a good kid, you avoided the bad ones. If you were a bad kid, you thought you probably always would be.

Labels like good and bad are used to describe outward behavior. But the reality is good kids don’t always think and do good things. The opposite is also true—bad kids aren’t always bad. We weren’t born with a label of good or bad; we were all created in the image of God, and if our behavior indicates something good or something bad, it’s a product of our environment. Digging deep into the lives of those we’re tempted to call bad reveals a common denominator: trauma.

Trauma is bad. It’s not just the bad thing that happens to you; it’s what happens inside of you because of what happens to you. Trauma can create limiting core beliefs out of a fixed mindset that threatens your safety, security, and purpose. Those beliefs can reinforce bad labels and bad behavior. Addicts use. Alcoholics drink. Sinners sin.

But people are not bad. People may make bad life decisions that are a product of trauma in early life, but that does not make them bad. For people in recovery, this is critical to understand. You are not your behavior. And when you separate your behavior from your true identity as a beloved child of a good Father God, you start acting out of your true identity, not your label.

God, reveal to me any “bad” labels I’ve put on myself or others. Strip them away and replace them with Your truth. Show me who I really am in You, and show me how You see others. Amen.