(From the Indiana years)

An advisor colleague and I talked about how people are figuring out who they are.  It reminded me of why people take those tests like “Which Bubble Tea Are You?” or “Which Classic Movie Are You?”  I guess people want to find their place in the community.  We want to feel significant, if not unique.  Not belonging or knowing our place is a terrible thing. 

Thomas Merton writes that each of us has two names.  As we grow closer to God, we find our identity in Him as a child of His.

This is the first of our names – “I am the one that God loves.”  But we also have another name – the persons we are created to be.  Several characters in the Bible get their names changed by God as they receive grace and are called to Him – Jacob, Abraham, Paul, Peter.  Several characters receive their names at birth – John, Samuel, Jesus.  Each name reflects their struggle, transformation, and life. 

Our names are important because they define our calling and role.  Even the secular world recognizes this fact; many of us define ourselves by the work we do, the courses we study, the skills we have.  Those definitions fail only when we place all of our sense of being in those things and when we look to those definitions as the end-all, rather than a means to an end. 

How much do we define ourselves in relation to God?

What are our names?

I am starting to see who I am meant to be.