Label Text Not Showing Outside of Page_Load

I'm having a problem displaying the text for a label control. When I set the text in the code-behind, it only appears on the web page when the text is set in the Page_Load. However, when I move the code outside of Page_Load -- into another method, for example -- the label text no longer appears on the web page.

What am I missing?

 For reference, here's my code:

------------------ somepage.aspx -------------------

<asp:Label ID="lblPaging" runat="server" Visible="true">< ...