What's Your Name?

I flew down to Miami, Florida this week to help celebrate my mom’s 70th birthday. So, as is my routine when I’m at my mom’s house, I walked down Miller Road to get my daily dose of Cuban coffee in the early morning hours. As the traffic built up, I kept an unhurried pace. The store wasn’t going anywhere, so why run? I also was still breaking in my orthotics (or should I say, they were breaking ME in), so running was out of the question.

As I reached the halfway point, I felt a few drops of rain.

Uh-oh.

I looked further ahead toward my destination and saw a curtain of water heading straight for me.

I found it ironic that the reason I left THAT morning for my walk was that we were supposed to have good weather. If it had started raining 10 minutes earlier, I wouldn’t have gone out.

I couldn’t run, and I was going to get wet if I turned back anyways, so I shrugged my shoulders and resignedly kept plodding forward as the warm mist enveloped me. It was a surprisingly soft rain. The drops quickly darkened my shirt and shorts. I occasionally walked from tree to tree, but that did not serve to do much more than wet my shoes on the lush grass by the roadside.

I have never deliberately walked in the rain without something to “protect” me from getting wet. I imagined the motorists in their safe little air-conditioned habitats were looking at this moron walking in a driving rain and thought, “That guy’s too dumb to come in out of the rain.” That thought made me smile. I smiled because I knew something that they didn’t; that this was a soft rain. That I actually felt comfortable walking as warm drops splattered all over me.

And I thought, “I should write about this.”

We all have a calling in life. A “name”, if you will. This calling has little (if anything) to do with what we do for a living, but it helps define who we are.

On October 10th, 2007, I was hiking the White Oak Canyon Trail in Shenandoah National Park with a good friend. Mike Keith and I had spent the morning on the trail when I came to the realization that God wanted me to write more. That I was a “Writer”.

You see, for a long time I had seen myself as a “Tour Guide”. Someone who tries to notice and share the little details about this journey of life with God and others. Writing it turns out would become my main medium for this. I guess you could say I’m a “Travel Writer”.

Seeking and finding your name is important because it helps you to focus on what you were put on this earth to do. And we have ALL been gifted in some way.

I had dinner with my old friend Glenn a few nights ago. As soon as we made the plans, he informed me that there was someone we had to see; a college buddy named Raul who I hadn’t seen in over a dozen years. I last heard that he was out of the country, but to my delight it turned out he was back in South Florida. He was tending bar at a billiards club near Ft. Lauderdale.

As we sat and reminisced about the crazy things we did in our early twenties together, he occasionally would help a patron. My friend Raul has always been an “old soul”, wise well beyond his years. Throughout our conversation, he’d introduce us to various patrons and they’d gush about Raul and his amazing advice.

One patron beamed at him, “I told Raul that I was going to end it all and slit my wrists!”

Raul, always ready was a dry rejoinder, interrupted, “I told him he needed to use that razor for shaving instead.”

“He saved my life!”

Raul shook his head and smiled.

Raul, you see, is not a bartender, he’s a “Caretaker.”

What do you do that truly makes you feel alive and complete? What do people compliment about you that makes you glow? What have you dreamed of doing, but have put aside because it’s not “practical”?

What’s your name?

Joe

Our Vision Part 5
What’s your name? We believe there is so much more to our identity than a jumble of letters assigned to us at birth. That’s why we are focused on discovering God’s name for us. Who are we really? What drives us? What are our passions? How are we gifted? How do we go from feeling like just another member of the human race to finding out who we were created to be? This isn't about what you do to get a paycheck; it's about your calling in life. As we discover our calling, we find ourselves walking alongside other people who share our passion and talents. Artists and Poets, Storytellers and Musicians, Dancers and Singers, etcetera, all find communities where they can connect with others. This quest for identity is a journey we cherish and celebrate.

Related Verses
Genesis 17:1-6
When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the LORD appeared to him and said, “I am El-Shaddai—‘God Almighty.’ Serve me faithfully and live a blameless life. I will make a covenant with you, by which I will guarantee to give you countless descendants.”

At this, Abram fell face down on the ground. Then God said to him, “This is my covenant with you: I will make you the father of a multitude of nations! What’s more, I am changing your name. It will no longer be Abram. Instead, you will be called Abraham, for you will be the father of many nations. I will make you extremely fruitful. Your descendants will become many nations, and kings will be among them!

Revelations 2:17
“Anyone with ears to hear must listen to the Spirit and understand what he is saying to the churches. To everyone who is victorious I will give some of the manna that has been hidden away in heaven. And I will give to each one a white stone, and on the stone will be engraved a new name that no one understands except the one who receives it.

NLTse