Who, or what do you associate yourself with?

Do you label yourself as a musician, a pray-er, a medic, a teacher, an athiest, a mechanic, a homosexual? Do you hang around with people younger than you, thinner than you, more famous than you?
Why?

Ray Charles, the famous blind pianist and singer didn’t do much for blind people. He didn’t really associate himself with ‘the blind’ at all, in fact. He did, however, go out of his way to help the deaf. When asked for an explanation he said, “I’m blind. It didn’t hold me back from being in any way successful. Deafness, now that’s a handicap.”

We all have things that hold us back. We all have disabilities; things that we struggle with.

Some of mine are:
Maths of any kind
Cutting bread straight
Distinguishing left from right

I could go on…

But none of these are my label. I don’t associate with others with similar habits (otherwise there would be terrible bread cutting, budgeting and confusion abounding my life!)

I try to actively associate myself with those who I believe make me better at living life the way God intended.
At the end of an email my Jon wrote me last week, he said “You make a very good you.”

I like that. I’m happy to be that. But what if the ‘me’ I am trying to be is not mimicking Jesus? Surely then, being ‘me’ is dangerous…

What about you? What do you want to be associated with? What do you want people to say about you when you’re gone?

That you were nice? Not very memorable.
That you were good in bed? Not very honouring, unless it is said by your husband or wife…
That you were fair? Not very exciting.
That you were ‘you’? Big deal.

I’d like people to say this about me.
“You could tell from everything she said and everything she did that she knew God well.”
That’s an association worth having.