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What have you been named? What would you WANT to be named?

You have a legal name, but what words shaped or “named” you?

Prickly, Depressed, Promiscuous, Passive, Cowardly, Unsatisfying, Stupid, Fat, Irrational, Too Rational, The Black Sheep, Unlovely, Dry, Boring, Excessive, Wasteful, A Failure Just Like Your Daddy, Too Dreamy, A Wimp, Too Dangerous, Abandoned, Lazy, Alone, Worthless . . .

Once “named,” we decide how to live out of these identities.

• We reject them and we prove them wrong, or
• We embrace them and live under their spells, or
• We forget them even though they’ve marked and marred our character.

In each case, instead of living authentically, we live in reaction to words designed to crush our genuine identity and purpose. You’ll then hear phrases like:

• I’ll prove that idiot wrong, or
• I really do deserve this suffering and pain, or
• I keep trying, but something in me self-destructs, and I don’t know why.

“You know, boys would like you more if you just lost ten pounds,”
or
“How can you be such an f-ing idiot?”

These accusations, even if said in jest, steal our God ordained design, our very identity, replacing both with lies that diminish or crush our value.

Do you doubt that your name, that your identity matters?

In Genesis 35:18, as Rachel died giving birth, she named her child Ben-oni that means “son-of-my-sadness.” Jacob knew the child could be damaged by being reminded every day that he was the fruit of his mother’s death, so he kindly changed his name to Benjamin, meaning “son-of-my-right-hand.” How much of a difference did that make?

Even more so, in Genesis 32, God Himself replaced a name, radically changing an individual’s and even a whole people’s identity and purpose. The given name was Jacob, meaning “supplanter” as this man was a conniving liar. God changed his name to Israel that means “contender,” “fighter,”  “prince,” “prevailer.” Can you see the impact and power of this new name, this new identity? Which one would you want?

Can God do this for you?

What would it mean if a name like “Unlovely” or “Weak & Unreliable” was replaced by “My Perfect Beloved” or “Valiant Warrior”? How might this change the trajectory of a life?

Do you think God still replaces words/names that have imprisoned us with names that give us a new identity, even freedom?

We at I Am Done not only believe it is so, we’ve seen it transform many lives. To learn more, consider attending one of our upcoming events. You can find them listed on our home page by clicking HERE.

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The What & When of These Posts

So you can plan on what topics are posted and when

These will be posted by 5 p.m. each Wednesday.

And. . .

the FIRST week of the month’s posts will relate to our identity in and by Christ, including our names

the SECOND week will relate to God’s design for men and for women

the THIRD week will relate to posing, wounding and healing

the FOURTH week will relate to living in Act III

if there is a FIFTH week, I get to pick a topic of my choosing, or you get to request a topic you’d like covered

As review, STARTING IN JANUARY, the topics will be:

  • Week one, identity
  • Week two, the heart of a man or of a woman
  • Week three, healing
  • Week four, living in Act III
  • Week five, you or I get to select

For the Christmas/New Year’s week, will see what God presses on my heart to write.

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But dad, you gave it to me

In jail for years, when finally freed he visited with his child.

“Son, where did you get that iPod?”

“Dad, you gave it to me last Christmas.”

The Salvation Army’s Angel Tree Ministry allows children to receive gifts from their incarcerated parents. Just imagine, “Mom, who is this from?” “It’s from your dad.”

If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give what is good to those who ask Him! . . . Matt 7:1

Yesterday I selected gifts for a 12-year old girl, size medium, junior. She wanted a bible, books and a winter coat. It was not an exercise of buying stuff, it was the privilege of representing the love of her father to this currently fatherless child. These gifts were precious, infused with the possibility of hope, of being remembered, of love.

A woman at LifeWay invested her own struggles as a 12-year old to help me select just the right bible, books and journals that would affirm the heart of this girl. We inscribed her bible with her name and the words Beautiful & Beloved just below.

Then it was time to select a coat. It must wrap her in the arms of her father, it must bless her with comfort and warmth, and it must sparkle that she is beautiful.

It was more emotional than I would have ever expected. I drove across Akron so this little girl would receive these gifts from her father. Work stuff? It had to wait.

Choosing each item, I asked whether each was good enough to represent her father’s love, much like God’s better gifts. My hope – as she opens each gift she feels the love of her father, as she reads her bible that she will grow closer to the King, as she wears that coat she will thank and think of her father, and as she reads those books or writes in those journals she will capture thoughts and words that will direct her life towards wholeness and love.

As a man and as a father, what an honor to be able to fight FOR this family. That it will be restored upon his or her release, and that you can rise up and offer your strength, beauty, or compassion on behalf of someone this Christmas season.

Merry Christmas!