I'm excited about today! and
I've been thinking of some things (imagine that??? :)
one of them has to do with our NAMES.
What is your name?
What are you called?
School starts soon, and "names" are very important!
Often it will determine your seat assignment,
or your place in the lunch line.
It may determine your place in the entire list of your peers seated in an auditorium of classmates, or it may determine something else much more personal.
Our names can determine who we are to others, or how we see ourselves.
How does it feel when someone calls you by your ENTIRE name?
I know, as a child, it was evidence of my noncompliance with some preordained rule
I'd refused to acknowledge.
In school, it demanded immediate attention... or
it could be a source of shame when manipulated by the ones
who wanted my image adjusted to their own boxes.
There was a terrible hurricane in Texas about the time I was in grade school...
a time when I was trying to see myself in terms of the world,
not the safety of my family.
Friends jockeying for hard fought positions in the scholastic world decided
it would bring them superiority to rename their classmates.
I, got chosen to bear the name.... 'hurricane'
thinking back, it might well have been okay in some ways
(it DID sweep away all the debris and foundationally flawed leaving room for rebuilding...
I would consider that something good),
but at the time, it was devastating.
I KNEW what that hurricane did to people's lives and how
detrimentally it was spoken of by all.
I wanted NOTHING to do with that name.
And yet, it became a source of great fun to watch my reaction to the name.
As I thought of this, I considered my name (names) now....
I adore my grandmother name...
I cherish my name spoken by my sweet friends
as I hear their voices on the end of a long overdue phone call...
I love it when I get called the names given by those who love and see me...
it makes me become the one they see.
Today... as this new season, Fall, is upon me....
I am hoping for me and for each of you reading this....
names that make us who we are meant to be.
May each calling be one that increases the treasures within
so that we may reflect the Truth that resides in that
secret and sealed place of our hearts.
May we know we are good and created with purpose beyond the vision of the world.
Be blessed today... and bless someone else by calling out who they truly are.
Lord... give us all eyes to see.... a way to be that part of You Who called the things that were not as if they were... and they BECAME that which YOU called them. AmenI will change your name
You shall no longer be called
Wounded,
outcast
Lonely or afraid
I will change your name
Your new name shall be Confidence,
joyfulness
Overcoming one
Faithfulness,
friend of God
One who seeks my face”
(DJ Butler, copyright 1987, Mercy Publishing)
