Get out of the box

Like most people, I am uncomfortable when I sense that other people are "putting me in a box" or giving me a "label". I guess none of us likes to feel that someone thinks they have us all figured out. It's an insult to think I've been oversimplified.

Recently I realized, however, that sometimes I am the worst culprit when it comes to putting me in a box. I don't know if it's a normal phenomenon that comes with getting older but I am becoming more aware of how often I do this to myself. There's a little verse in Jeremiah that may shed some insight on this increasing awareness.

Jeremiah 48:11 says: Moab has been at ease since his youth; he has also been undisturbed on his lees, neither has he been emptied from vessel to vessel, nor has he gone into exile. Therefore he retains his flavor, and his aroma has not changed. (NASB)

This verse describes people who haven't been "emptied from vessel to vessel" - forced to adapt to new situations and environments. The consequence of not having to adapt is that "he retains his flavor and his aroma has not changed". I'm sure there are lots of exceptions but I have noticed that people who haven't had to move, haven't traveled, haven't dealt with people of different ages and beliefs, haven't had their lives shaken up in one way or another (perhaps through difficult circumstances) can easily become inflexible and have set ideas about the way "things ought to be".

The move to California has been a "pouring from vessel to vessel" for me. In a totally new situation lots of things have been stirred up and I've noticed things about myself that I may not have noticed if we'd stayed put. One of the things I've noticed are some of the boxes I've put myself in, some of the labels I've stuck on myself and become comfortable with over the years. Labels do simplify life and they aren't all bad but sometimes they can get in the way of growth and creativity.

Here's an example: Lately I realized that I had put myself into a "frugal" box and that box was keeping me from enjoying something that God has recently lavished on me (via my dear husband). It's time to get out of that box, even if it's only occasionally, and to let my "flavor" and aroma be changed by being poured into a new vessel. Hopefully, new avenues of creativity, joy and blessing for others will result. After all, it's not really about me, it's about becoming everything God has in mind for me to be. And for that, I gotta get out of that box.