What a great name…

Today, one of my friends told me about his child’s recent diagnosis.  His child has been battling a variety of symptoms for quite awhile.  They and the doctors had been unable, previously, to properly name the problem.  That changed this past week.  His child’s problem now has a name, a proper identification, and we all feel better even though knowing its name is bittersweet.  Somehow, being able to name things tends to make us feel better than struggling with something that  remains undefined.

Throughout our lives we name ourselves and others.  We tend to focus on problematic identities more than their opposite.  We tend to focus on the negative names we give ourselves and others even though our minds know that each human is a multi-sided coin.

As you head into this week, remember that as much as you and I love to name ourselves, others, and endless items we possess, we lack proper perspective.  We can only see one side of the coin at a time.  We are overly wired to see the negative side or sides.  AND, we are mostly rushing to name without the knowledge and the understanding that’s required.  We are like 5th graders trying to diagnose the worlds most complex equation, you and me.  Nobody is that smart…

However, God suffers not from my limited perspective, my limited knowledge, my teeny tiny understanding of myself and even less of you, and He hasn’t the need to rush either.  Three hundred and sixty five times, in the Bible, he reminds us simply to “fear not.”  Once for every day of every year.  FEAR not.

His name is fearless.  And in Revelation 2:17 He reveals his naming strategy for you and for me…

“He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.  To him who overcomes, to him I will give some of the hidden manna, and I will give him a white stone, and a new name written on the stone which no one knows but he who receives it.”

Do you know your name?

What is your identity?

How do you define you?

Do you know that whatever name the world gives you, whatever the name of the disease that ails you, and whatever the name of your biggest fears, there is one that calls you, that wants to name you…

Beloved.

What a great name…