What's YOUR tag say?

If you were old enough in the late 80's to know how to ankle-roll your jeans and know the difference between Debbie Gibson and Tiffany and went to a Church of Christ, then you probably just rolled your eyes and put a little smile on your face reading the title. Acappella Vocal Band's single, "What's Your Tag Say?", was a bash on all of the brand-name hype when it came to our exterior look. A certain type of jeans, shirt and shoes could literally place you in a whole different class of people. We were/are that shallow back then. Who am I kidding? We still are, but that's not why I titled this blog what I did.

My new job puts me on the road to completely new territory for me. I've literally been from one corner of Tennessee to the other and, as of next Tuesday, I will have been to all four corners. Most of the scenery is beautiful and I'm continually amazed at God's creation and how beautiful it looks here. On my way up to Northeast Tennessee, I had to take Interstate 81 north of Knoxville. On the side of the road, during the day in the middle of the week, were a group of prisoners who were cleaning up the highway. Normally, you can identify a prison worker by someone who is wearing orange gear so that they stand out and don't mix in with the grass and trees. For the first time though, I saw something besides just the orange jumpsuit.

The first prisoner was kind of seperated from the rest of the group but had a deputy or some kind of official keeping an eye on him. On the back of his shirt was a black glob of something that you couldn't make out from a distance. As you got closer, the glob became words and quickly became readable:  "I Am A Drunk Driver". There wasn't the "Hello, my name is Bob and I'm a drunk driver" or "I'm sorry for my mistake but I'm a drunk driver." Just five words...the identifier (I) followed by the adjective (drunk) and then the noun (driver). I'm not sure which word has the bigger impact. Drunk? Driver? I?

Every person that drove by I-81 on that day saw this man and his other orange jumpsuit mates. They all had the same shirts with the same labels and they were all drunk drivers. It was fitting that they were there to clean up garbage on the side of the road. Perhaps, there may have been some empty beer cans or bottles. The irony is that the bottles would have been their own. It's easy to judge these men and their unwillingness to use common sense and listen to the message that we've been hearing for years to not drink and drive. The moment you pass judgement, though, God immediately decides to bring some irony of his own and ask what YOUR orange jumpsuit says. They've been tagged as drunk drivers and there's no need to know their names or why they did it or maybe they were coming back from a wedding and, for the first time in their life, they had one too many. They've just been tagged...drunk driver.

My tag is Aaron. I'm a sinner. I've made poor decisions. I'm sure I've done more things to hurt God than help and I try to pray for his forgiveness and mercy every day. I don't have to wear my tag for everyone to see like those prisoners did but God knows what our tag says. He also has the power to take our orange jumpsuits, put some cleansing bleach on them and make them white as snow. The hard part is remembering that God forgives those who love him. The easy part is wondering what people see when they look at me. Are people able to read my tag? Do they see "child of God" or do they just see the latest mistake I've made? Forgiveness and mercy are awesome and make all of our tags pleasant and readable. So....what's YOUR tag say?