Friday, January 7, 2011

Your Secret Name Read Along, Week 1

I am joining Marla Taviano over at her blog for a book study of Kary Oberbrunner's Your Secret Name.  Every Tuesday, we'll be discussing a couple of chapters from this wonderful book.  And, yes, I know I'm a little late this week, but Joshua has been sick, and I've not been able to put him down long enough to get two thoughts together, never mind compose and type a complete blog post...  *sigh*  But I digress...  This week,  we read the Introduction, and the first two chapters.  Here are a few of my thoughts so far...

I have grown up with many names... My birth name, for sure, but also many other Given Names, as Kary Oberbrunner calls them.  Unloveable, Forgotten, Unimportant, Not-Quite-Good-Enough...  The list is long and unimpressive.  These names can define me, if I let them, which I oh-so-often do, or they can wither away in the light of our true name, the Secret Name by which God calls us.  For many of us, we go our whole lives without learning that special name God has for us, and we lose out on the freedom and power that the gift of a Name brings.  We become a self-fulfilling prophecy of sorts, growing into that by which we are known.  Once we can still ourselves and learn to listen, and to accept, the new, Secret Name that God has for each of us, we can begin to throw off all those things that were holding us back from becoming who God created us to be.

This all sounds great, right?  Then, why is it just a little daunting to seek to discover that name for which we were born?  Could it be that it's just a little safer to stay with that which we know, those names which we wear like a faded t shirt or worn jeans, which are comfortable but ill-fitting? Why are we afraid to shed the rags and don the wedding clothes?  Because it is to a Feast that we are called, is it not?  My prayer, as I wander though this book, is that I may come to the place where I throw off the rags of my Given Names, and embrace the beauty and Grace of God's Secret Name for me, as I set my eyes on the work he has for me to do, and on the Feast He has promised those who serve Him.