By Name

"The sheep hear His voice and He calls His own sheep by name and leads them out" John 10:3. He calls me by name. That verse came to light in Mississippi for me. As it struck me the words, "I have called you by name, you are Mine" came into my head from the familiar song. Over our spring break trip to Bay St. Louis to do Hurrican Katrina relief, I had the pleasure of meeting the crew chief of our house project. He was very particular about how he wanted things to be done. The first day was rather frustrating to some of our group because he did most things himself instead of letting us help or do some of the measuring and marking. We were starting the construction of a house on about 10-foot stilts. Anyway, you see where this is going- we were all having a hard time being productive and being loud while having fun was not advisable. About half way through the day I decided to enact some of the things I have learned from a lifetime of trying to meet people where they are as well as the knowledge I have gained from my elementary education classes. I decided to be exactly what he was asking for. I stood beside him and asked questions. Knowing the answer was of no importance, asking the questions was. Somehow he started to like me and we began to strike up a rather intriguing conversation. He was hard of hearing and so would get flustered and nervous when people got loud. He had bad previous experience with a bunch of students and so was hesitant to let us do things without tight supervision. It all made sense really and instead of us helping the situation and being willing to bend ourselves to getting to know him and seeing it from his perspective we were more inclined to get angry that he wasn't letting us help.

He had made the comment on the first day that he was terrible with names. It was true. After the second day, however, he knew my name. It was the craziest feeling for such a simple thing but I'm not sure if I've ever felt so proud of my name and ever realized how much more gripping it will feel when God Himself says it someday. He called me by name. By that simple word "Katie" he accepted me. He deemed me worthy.

I say all of this not to point out my great deed but to make two points. One: we often do not take ourselves out of situations and look at it from another person's angle. There are always under-the-surface factors involved that we must step back and see before we cast judgements and make situations worse. Second, that Jesus accepts us. He calls us by name and we are His. It's such a comforting place, a place where we can leave everything that is going on in our lives and feel whole and know that we matter there. I want to be a person who calls people by name. I want people to feel at home with me because they know I've accepted them. They know I truly love them. The only way I can do that is to focus on Jesus and see that it is evil and not we ourselves that should be treated like evil. We must cast evil out and hate it but we must learn how to love the fallible humans that lay beneath those sometimes dark deeds. It's the old saying, "love the sinner, hate the sin" but it's so true. If we allow our emotions to guide us we will get angry when things aren't right, but if we let Jesus guide us we will love the sinner inspite of what they do.

Sacrifice

"We look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal" 2 Cor 4:18. How often do I sacrifice the eternal for the temporal? I know I harp on this a lot in these postings and if you talk to me even more, but I can't stress it enough. I had a moment just a little while ago that hit me in the heart. Do you ever have those moments that you knew were going to come around and hurt because you chose to let something slide a while ago that now comes back? It was a moment that could have easily been avoided had I not settled for temporal affirmation and satisfaction. We are prone to think that we can let our friends off by not telling them the things that they do to cut us down and "love them in spite of it". Yes, it's true, but there are those moments when we KNOW we should say something, know that they cannot and should not be treating someone like this and yet we allow them. We convince ourselves that this is really loving them and that we need to learn to be stronger and not be so emotionally driven. The details are of no value, but why do we do that? Why do we want people to accept us and stay around so much that we sacrifice the really loving part of the friendship? We do what we need to do at that moment to make them happy instead of being the friend that they really need. Because when we're honest no one really wants that friend right now- the friend that tells you it's not ok to treat them a certain way; the friend that kindly tells you when you should have done what you said you would do; the friend who lets you know that the way you acted the other day or that comment that you made was not appropriate. Those friends, we have a hard time with them. They're the people that love us so much they tell us when they can no longer listen to what we're talking about because it's not uplifting to the Kingdom. The friends that stand by our side when we need stability against all odds and yet tell us when we were wrong.

Anyway, it's because we set our eyes on the things that are seen. We set our eyes on being affirmed, set our eyes on being the best; set our eyes on being well-liked and having lots of attention. We set our eyes on success as being always having plans, always having friends calling, always having the right things to say and do. "For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also." Our treasure is our success and affirmation. We want so desperately to be told that we're valued, that we matter. But you know, that shouldn't be my treasure and it's no wonder that because it is my treasure that that is why my life is often filled with disappointment. "For out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks." When your heart is where your treasure is then your mouth is gonna speak some pretty temporal things that are of occasional momentary value but hardly any eternal. It'll make your a decent short-term friend but not worth it for the long run.

So what do we do? We must not lose sight of the prize. "I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God had called me heavenward in Christ Jesus." Are we pressing on or are we standing still waiting on people to affirm us and lead our lives? We must not lost sight of Jesus. We MUST set our eyes on the eternal, on Jesus. We must set our treasure on things that matter so that we can realize we matter because the things inside of us matter. If our treasure is eternal then our heart will be there which means our overflow from our hearts is good so that our mouths will speak truth and things of value.

If you have those moments that you're not sure why you're insecure, acting weird or you say something that you're not sure why you said it, know that you're human. But know that's not an excuse. Check your heart, check your treasure. Make sure they're eternal. Make sure they matter because it's the only way you will.