I Have A Name Part 2

It becomes easy to get lost in the sauce of life and complicate it,

But human beings are amazingly simple. If cut we bleed, if embarrassed we shrink, if desperate we compromise, if hurt we stand guard.

It was an average young adults meeting at the church and afterward I made the rounds: holy kisses, handshakes and hugs for those nearest and dearest. But having realized that there is great satisfaction in making new friends, every once in a while I step out and see what happens.

As I approached one group, a pair blindsided me. "Hi, we want to meet people" said the obviously enthusiastic of the two. The other half-smiled the emotion of what I believed was embarrassment. We started with the basics:"What is your name?" I asked them both; the first speaker gave theirs while the other did not feel quite as obliged. "Why should I tell you?" she answered looking away, "You'll just forget it anyway."

For the sake of healthy Christian fellowship, the next few minutes of the conversation would be spent attempting to prove her wrong, but the very impact of her words on me was its own test of their veracity.

Many names will be forgotten by us in this life because many people will be, (thus supporting the obsession behind current social media: outlets which force us to remember those we naturally would not). There are so many factors behind it, our health for one: only insanity or collapse from overexertion could result if you were to remember every single person to whom you have said "good morning"; Stress is another: taking care of our own lives leaves only so much room for the concern of others, and we could even consider natural disposition of some for absentmindedness — but after all that I could mention as to why we forget others, it would all boil down to one insurmountable truth: human are we all.

And no human has the ability to care about any one person all of the time, not even him or her own self, not parents for children nor lover for lover. This, it seems, would leave a gaping hole in our apparent need to be consistently identified or known, and not just that — but to be known correctly.

It is why no one purposely returns to a restaurant where they receive poor service or happily invite back a house guest who predictably turns their home into a waste bin upon every visit. It is why music moguls don suits with price tags comparable to that of automobiles and film stars drive automobiles with price tags comparable to that of houses — we all wish to be known, among other things, as individuals of invaluable worth.

Our desire to be correctly identified may seem unique to us, but it, as well as the rest of our emotions pre-existed human life, for they derived from God Himself.

Who do you think you are?

"But what about you?" he [Jesus] asked. "Who do you say I am?" Simon Peter answered, "You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God." Jesus replied, "Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by flesh and blood, but by my Father in heaven."

-Matthew 16:15-17

According to the gospel account of Mark, Jesus had fed more than five thousand by multiplying fish and bread in his hands, traveled with his disciples from Bethsaida to Gennesaret,  had a verbal skirmish with some Pharisees followed by a sermon and subsequent expounding of his words to the disciples, trekked out for Tyre, then to Sidon, crossed the Sea of Galilee, arrived in the Ten Towns and from there went to Dalmanutha, from whence he returned to Bethsaida to perform yet another miracle at a crowd's request and was finally on his way to Caesarea Phillipi.

Jesus neared the end of a tour in which he, by primitive means, covered nearly one-hundred and forty-four miles — that is the length of five and-a-half New York City Marathons! He then, after all this, begins to question those that have chosen to follow him.

But we have all known this at some point: somehow still alive after having waged the day's battles, with the scent of a hard day's work still fresh upon us, we in our moment of great vulnerability ask for another's insight:"What do you think about me?" "What am I to you?"

What Peter essentially said was: "The ground on which we walk is not worthy of your sandals", for Jesus was the reason Peter could utter a single word.

God does what he does because of who He is, His identity, if you will, He loves not because He is feeling loving but because He is Love.

Where It All Went Wrong

"From that time on Jesus began to explain to his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things at the hands of the elders, the chief priests and the teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life. Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. "Never, Lord!" he said. "This shall never happen to you!" Jesus turned and said to Peter, "Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; you do not have in mind the concerns of God, but merely human concerns."

-Matthew 16:21-23

What did Peter say that was so horrible? And why would Jesus use such an exclamation:"Get behind me, Satan?" Because no matter how we perceive it, only Satan profits from us not following God's individual calling on our lives.

The picture of Christ on the cross is surely a gruesome one, but just for a moment, imagine Him without it.

There would be no gospel and therefore no Bible, no Christianity or its institutions: no churches, Red Cross, Salvation Army or YMCA. Billions would not have been impacted throughout those 2000 plus years between the Resurrection and now through the message of God's great sacrifice — all would be lost. Our world would be worse off then when God had found it formless with darkness over the surface of the deep and Lucifer and his fallen angels as its likely inhabitants.

Do you see now how affirming this statement of Peter's would have completely interrupted the Father's purpose for His Son, thereby altering how Jesus would be defined?

Throughout the trip, earlier in Matthew, people had given the God Man their own tags: 'healer', 'rabble-rouser' 'heretic', and 'teacher' — he was some and none of these, but they did not wholly define him, they did not capture his entire worth.

To take God's Word, do away with the "I" I was created to be and mix it up with "A" uninspired version of myself, is to turn the "Bible" into "Babel".

In "Babel" we no longer make heavenly sense and begin to speak a different language than that intended, being known only as: "liberals", "playas", "divas", "maneaters", "jerks", "pimps", "metros", "clowns", "hotties", "conservatives", "beasts", "losers", "drunks" and "hustlers" ** they sound like things that crawl, not people — weak definitions all. To live in such nomenclature is to live defective.

Most people define themselves by terms they have yet to review but seekers of truth are those that begin to do the leg work.

I see now that the mess I lived in just a few years prior was the result of not defining myself by God's purpose and standard, I let the world do the "leg work" for me. If you would like to know what I was like, no need to guess, just review the Billboard Top 40 and watch fifteen minutes of reality television and there you have it.

Going to church was fine just as long as I did not turn into a "fanatic"; seeking God was admirable as long as I knew "money makes the world go round", being equally yoked was a quaint idea though the optimal prize was "a lady in the street but a freak in the bed" and saying my prayers was helpful as long as I "understood" that "God helps those that help themselves."

To wholly discover identity is to find purpose.

Read again, if you would, the identities listed a few paragraphs above; now what divine purposes would you expect them to accomplish? Exactly as I said before — defective.

“But what am I supposed to do?”

"Jean-Marc, I don't know what I'm supposed to do" is what I regularly hear over the phone from one of my favorite people. The talk is always the same because the question never changes.

“What's up? Is this about school?” I ask with a prophetic sigh.

“Yes, I just don't know what I'm doing in this class”

“Well, what do you feel God is calling you to ?”

“I don't know”

“Have you tried asking Him?”

“What do you mean?”

“Praying”

“Yes, I asked Him and nothing's happened”

“Really? You don't feel like He's telling you anything?”

“No”

I sit erect in my chair. “Are you spending time with Him?"

There is a significant pause in conversation. “Well, I read”

“When was the last time?”

“I read my devotional like a couple days ago”

“And you really feel like you have time to get on your knees and pray?”

“Well, it's hard because [catalog of distractions]”

“Well if  prayer is a conversation then you should speak and you should listen”

“OK?”

“So just make sure to take some time and do that”

“Do what?”

“Seek God”

“OK”

“OK, so I'm gonna let you go now so you can do that”

“Wait, but what am I supposed to do?”

I usually go on to explain that when we seek God and His Kingdom first, we find out who we are in Him and His purpose for us, this is typically met by a “How” and then we continue on the very same merry-go-round as before. But I can understand the frustration.

Everyone wants a ten step program to seeing God move. Maybe there is a God-blessed compact disc that we could stick into our laptop with the ability to speak our life's path and purpose to us or perhaps wisdom for all situations is available in a microwave popcorn package somewhere and could be ready for in thirty seconds, but judging by our current state of affairs, they must not be readily available on earth.

For the rest of us unfortunate masses, the plan is still simple though may not be as "easy", as it requires a bit more: an earnestly seeking heart.

 In the Bible and in life, I only know of a five part formula for inquiring of the Lord: 1) Repentance, 2)Prayer and Fasting, 3)Reading the Holy Scriptures, 4)Godly counsel and 5)"Listening"-keeping our eyes and ears open for what God is showing, saying and doing

The thing to note here is that not each element will be necessarily equal for every single believer, as with other things, we are usually in need of some parts more than others.

Have you tried this already and got nothing or are you not sure where to start?

 The question is which irks you more: turning from enjoyment that makes you feel guilty, spending quiet moments in prayer and reading God's Word, sharing your dreams with someone further along in the Lord or expectantly waiting on Him to speak. And then the answer is: I suggest you do that thing more, along with the others.  

 In this life, the tendency is to define ourselves, choose our own destinies and then cry foul when God does not get with our program — because its easy.

"[It is] God who gives life to the dead and calls into being things that were not."

-Romans 4:17

A core reason for seeking the will of God in our lives is that more often than not, our aim is too low: In 2009, a Pew Research Center Poll found that 81% of young adults (18-25 yrs) really had only two life goals: wealth and fame — the true desires of a generation. Knowing this, should we then be astounded when a recent collaborative study from Princeton University, the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs and the Brookings Institute show that as little as decade ago there began "a major increase in young people's involvement in robbery — the total rate of firearm robberies increased by 42%." If the only goals you have are wealth and fame, then holding up a bank could definitely fulfill your needs.

But like a concerned parent serving a meal to their dieting foodie child, the Lord inspects our plate and asks: "Is that all you want?"

"Yet he [Abraham] did not waver through unbelief regarding the promise of God, but was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God, being fully persuaded that God had power to do what he had promised."

-Romans 4:20-21

God had put down His deposit of skills and abilities in you at original birth, but at your second birth, He "purchased" you with His blood (Rev 5:9) so that you would "reign on the earth" through royalty and priesthood (Rev 5:10). And by the end, the Word says, He would have made us into a "kingdom".

To follow God is to rule the world He created.

1 Peter 2:5 refers to us believers as "living stones." We regularly think of living life as a task to be done by and for ourselves but God says in His Word that He wishes to build US into something collectively amazing.

Years ago, having once helped my father build a wall, I never saw one of the bricks rebel against his hand, rather their willingness to submit to his will is what allowed the production of something more grand than a pile of nice-looking individual bricks.

We have a Master Builder today and He has plans to lift us up and place us each in the appropriate place in order to build His Kingdom. We must know Him more so that we may trust Him more.

I am convinced that to truly see Jesus as the Living God is to remain silent, as nothing you or I could ever say or do is as important. When I am given these brief moments of understanding, I cry

Nothing else cuts me as deeply as His limitless Love. He still chooses to use us in spite of the detestable practices of our past. Those days when we detested the very breath in our lungs and forced ourselves to look at our reflection in the bathroom, God loved that thing in mirror. And because He still loves us, He has assigned us specific stations from which to operate within His palaces.

 Inevitably, everything comes to this: that all we are is to be ultimately laid at the feet of Christ. On the floor go our degrees, position, class and titles, so that His purpose would be raised above all.

"He must increase, but I must decrease."

-John 3:30, KJV

May this be our prayer.

In Him,

Jean-Marc