What’s In a Name?

Names are important….a big deal…. defining.  They give weight… meaning…purpose.  The original Webster’s Dictionary defines the word “Name” as “the sound or combination of sounds used to express an idea or any material substance, quality, or act”.    

Have you ever given a name to something?   Like that drawer that holds all the extra “stuff” that you don’t know where to put….The “junk drawer” right?  Or what about where you live… Do you say “My” house? Or “My” apartment?  Or “My” Room?    Many people take the time to name their cars.  It makes sense.  After all, our cars are used to take us safely and quickly from one place to another. So why not give it a name?   Several years back a friend decided to name our pool vacuum.   At first, I thought it was a silly idea to give something like that a name, but it stuck with us.   And after all these years, we still call it by its name.  So if you come visit us and hear someone saying “Bingo is stuck.” or “Can you turn Bingo off?”, please know we aren’t talking about the farmer’s dog.  

We give names to traditions, celebrations, and anniversaries.  We have names for our countries, roads, mountains, and bodies of water.   We name stars, planets, galaxies.  We have names for governments, ideologies, ideas, and beliefs.  And whenever these names are spoken, heard, read, or written, they create a picture in your mind that serves as a reminder of the past, the status of the present, and the possibility of the future.  

What comes to mind from names like Thanksgiving Dinner, New Year’s Eve, Golden Wedding Anniversary, Summer Break, Easter Sunday, July 4^th, Trick or Treating, Prom, Christmas Morning, First Day of School, or September 11^th?  Or what about Earth, Evolution, Conservative, or Israel?  Here are some polarizing ones….Marriage, Abortion, Homosexual, and Semi-Automatic Weapons? And how about Freedom, Slavery, and Choice?   Depending on the context, words can paint pictures that run the gambit from fear, grief, and despair to joy, peace, and hope.   And what amazes me most is the fact that these pictures are painted with just one simple thing….a name.  

When my husband and I found out we were going to be parents, one of the very first things we discussed was what we would name our child.   This was serious business!    Sleepless nights, college funds, and all the other seemingly endless list of parental responsibilities paled in comparison to the endeavor of picking a name for this unborn treasure.   So we immediately set out on a mission to find a name.   We had a ticking clock after all.  At first, we had a list of both boy and girl names, but at 17 weeks pregnant, we found out we were having a girl and that is when the heat got turned up on this enormous assignment.  It might sound ridiculous, but this can be stressful on a marriage.  How do you resolve picking a name if one can’t be agreed upon?  It’s not like you can compromise here and say, “Well he wants Piper and I want Olivia, so we’ll go with Phoebe.” You could do something creative to compromise like using the letters of the names you can’t agree on to create a whole new name, like a game of Scrabble.  But that could open up a whole can of worms that your kid is going to be dealing with the rest of his or her life.  Not the least of which is never being able to find a souvenir with their name on it.  Oh the horror!     

If you can believe it, the Social Security Administration was the one that came to our rescue.  Published on their website are the Top 100 names for the last 100+ years.   So if you want to know what the #1 name in 1942 was, you can find it there.  Now THAT is what I call an efficient use of taxpayer dollars!  (By the way….Mary and James were the top names in 1942) These lists saved us countless hours of discussions on a name for our baby girl.   And so our beautiful girl was given a name before she had gulped one breath of air on Earth.  Amazing…right?! 

So what’s the point of all this business about names?  Why am I taking the time to write about them?  Well, I’ve had this thing planted in my heart for some time now.   Ironically enough, I’m not sure what I should name this “thing”…perhaps a prompting, a vision, a calling?   But whatever its name is, it’s there.   This internal tugging was leading me to feed people and words are the substance.  Yet what utensil should I use to do it? A blog?  Do people even really do blogs anymore?  Or is that so 10 years ago?  A podcast….the 21^st century version of the early 20^th century radio show?  How about the classic, tried and true book?  Or maybe in the end, all of them?  Regardless, the journey has officially begun.   And just like the start of any journey, there are an infinite number of unknowns.   I don’t know about you, but unknowns are absolutely terrifying to me. 

Yet one thing I do know without a shadow of a doubt is this….the ENTIRE foundation of why I’m starting this journey is because of a name.   Now as soon as you read this name everything is going to change.   Remember our friend Webster’s definition of the word “name”?  Names paint a picture in our minds, and this one is uber divisive.  It will fill some who read this with hope and others with doubt.  Some will be filled with joy and others with hate.  As for me, I choose to do my level best to daily build my life on this name because in all my searching and striving, it is the only name that made any logical sense of this broken world.   This name belongs to a person born long ago in a time very different than ours in many ways, but the same in regard to what matters. 

This person was born a baby boy to a family of humble financial means.  Though a powerful person tried to have him killed shortly after his birth, he grew up to become a skilled craftsman under the tutelage of his step-father.  Around the age of 30, he left home and the family business to follow a different path….one that he was born to follow.   

The purpose of this journey was to teach the way of peace to humankind in order that what is broken can be made new and complete.  This man defined himself in specific, precise terms.  Because of this, he walked this earth in a manner no one else ever has.  He welcomed others that had been overlooked and hated.  He taught people about how to love others (even enemies) as yourself and how that was only possible if you had the honest picture of self.   History records him healing the sick, feeding the hungry multitudes with impossibly little resources, and even raising the dead to life.   And in spite of all the kindness, good, and love he gave others, his very presence would also bring out the worst in people.  So much so, that a plan was devised to silence him.  

So at the end of his journey, a close friend betrayed him, he was arrested, severely beaten, psychologically tortured, and ultimately executed as a criminal.  And yet the irony of it all is that this was his plan from the beginning.  He willingly and purposefully chose to go with his arresting officers in order for the plan to be fulfilled.  

Why all this history?…. So that we can know how and why a simple name can have such long-term and far reaching purpose.   The name that was given to this man defined his purpose and nature.  

Now I’m not a doctor, a historian, a scientist, a philosopher, a mathematician, a theologian or an expert in any other field of study that provides insight into our common human story.   But what I do know is what I have observed and experienced in my own life and seen carried out in the lives of others because of the simple choice to seek, follow, trust, and practice the instructions of this craftsman turned teacher. 

You see, on my own, I pretty much just suck as a human.  Sorry to be so crude, but it’s just plain true.  Out on my own, I’m uber prideful, selfish, judgmental, angry, jealous, vengeful, hypocritical, and hateful.  On my own, unforgiveness is my motive operandi and I will draw a line in the sand lightning fast.  On my own, I’ve struggled with rage, lust and all kinds of addictions.  I’m honestly just a big mess…a house on sinking sand.  And left to myself, I would gladly let myself sink because at least in the pit others can’t hurt me, I can’t hurt them, and it’s only my junk to try and sweep under the proverbial rug. 

And yet there is this name that ushers in a flood of hope.  This powerful name crossed my path off and on when I was growing up, but this one night in junior high it was different.  It was as if the name itself called to me.  For the first time, the story of its owner showed me that there was something desperately missing in my life and that the only one who could fill that void was the one who’s name it was.    As a young adolescent, I only grasped on to a fragment of what he and his name provided me.   Sadly, I believed that he would take care of the long-term plan but that I was required to take care of the short-term.  I held fast to the belief that if I kept up my end of the bargain by making the right “day to day” life choices, then he would fulfill the “happily ever after” I so desperately yearned for.  Fast forward 20 or so years and after tons and tons of mistakes, I am married with 2 beautiful children.   I’m living the quid essential “American Dream”.   And yet something was still wrong.  Something was still missing.   I was desperately worried that all my past mistakes, along with the ones that I couldn’t seem to stop making, were going to catch up to me.  I imagined that they were being kept in a record book and that in the end there wasn’t going to be enough hope left.  I was on a hamster wheel of despair because I could never measure up.  I just wanted to prove myself worthy of the one who’s name had given me such hope.  

Not until I had settled into parenting did I begin to understand that the hamster wheel of trying to prove myself is just plain asinine and a complete waste of the precious gift of time.  As a parent, my children didn’t need to do anything to earn the love and hope I had for them.  I had those for them when I chose to conceive them.  Perfect behavior and zero mistakes were never requirements for me to desire what was best for them.  Their life choices mattered to me for one simple fact….they were my children.  And in fact, when they do mess up and behave poorly, I use that as an opportunity to teach and guide them into what I know is best for them.  When you truly love someone, you do what you are capable of doing to make them whole including things that are hard and painful. 

And this is what my teacher friend, the peasant born, former craftsman did for me.  He met me in my pit and showed me the way out.  And when I crawl back into it (which is often), he shows me the way out again.  Over and over and over he does this.  He never leaves and I will be forever grateful to him for that.   

Have you guessed who I’m talking about yet?  Depending on who you are, where you’ve grown up, and who your family and friends are, you might know exactly what name I’ve been talking about all along.    Or maybe because of your circumstances, you have no idea whose name is behind all of this.  Well, here are some final hints.  He’s the beginning and the end.  He’s the author and creator.  He’s the way.  He’s light and truth and life.  In the Greek, his name means “God saves”.  And that is what his willingness to die and going through with it did for me….what it did for EVERYONE, EVERYWHERE. He’s Hashem, Yeshua…He’s the Great I AM….He’s Jesus.