What’s in a name?

Changing one’s last name when you get married is a legal custom in certain English speaking parts of the world, and even though I’ve grown up in quite a conservative family, this has always been something that has freaked me out.

I’m big on “living” out the meaning of my birth name, and so, just the idea of changing my last name was insane for me. I decided that I may not want to change my last name in marriage (it’s a long story, and we’ll have to see what happens when the time comes for me to finally get married). But then I also knew that I couldn’t go through life without any name changes at all.

There was one very important name change that I had to go through, and one that I believe we all have to undergo. That name change comes when we decide to live for God.

The Bible, in the book of Colossians (2:20) says the following: “Listen, if you have died with the Anointed One to the elemental spirits of the cosmos, then why are you submitting yourselves to its rules as if you still belong to this world?”. That same book (Colossians 3:17) later says the following: “Surely, no matter what you are doing (writing, speaking or working), do it all in the name of Jesus our Master, sending thanks through Him to God our Father.” The book of Isaiah (44:3-5) says something similar in poetic language, claiming that “… some will write the Lord’s name on their hands and will take the name of Israel as their own”.

I regret to admit that it’s maybe been people like me (and others who decline to admit it) that struggle when it comes to having a consistent relationship with Jesus. You know, like meeting with him every day and talking to him like you would in your real relationships. The only way to fully take on someone else’s identity, and to walk and do life as a part of them, is if you change your name and take on theirs, and then unselfishly fully submit yourself to find your happiness in theirs.

Look at we just read in Colossians. If we are fully enmeshed (entangled – wow!)  in Jesus Christ then we should not be doing things in our own strength. Surely, if we’ve taken on the name of the Lord’s as our own, then there shouldn’t be a problem when we need to submit to his will in certain areas of our lives.

Why is it that we so often stray from common sense (good sense, judgement based on a simple perception of the situation or facts)?

My good sense tells me to cling to Jesus with everything that I have, but in a world where, as young women and men, we are confronted with a barrage of hyper-awareness about things like feminism and cultural appropriation it is sometimes hard to believe that it will take us laying down our lives (and our pride) for us to truly find them; that it will take giving up our names (and really, also, our worldly identities) to find who we really are.

I feel that maybe the best way to it, is to just jump in. And so, if you are reading this, and are battling to have a meaningful relationship with the guy upstairs (and everywhere, really), then I’d like to encourage you to take the jump with me today (I have to do it on the daily) to take on His name. If you have no idea what I am saying, and would like to know a bit more, why don’t you click on the banner below!