Month: June 2019

What’s Your Name?

Last Saturday morning I took a trip to the nail salon.  Deciding to treat myself to both a manicure and a pedicure, I chose a bright pink color for my toes.  But I was unsure as to what color polish to put on my fingernails.  Finally, I glanced to my right at the woman’s hands next to me.  Her technician was finishing her nails and they looked so pretty… soft, white nails with just a hint of pink.  “I want that color,” I said to my technician, Gon, as I gestured towards my neighbor’s almost-dry nails.  As he began the process of prepping my nails, I asked him the name of the polish color.  “Funny Bunny,” he replied. 

The infamous “Funny Bunny” nail color mentioned above.

Funny Bunny.  That name holds special meaning for me.  Several years ago, as a newlywed in Tucson, Arizona, I took a RN job at a community mental health outpatient clinic.  I was the team nurse for a group of mental health professionals who oversaw the care of almost 250 severely and persistently mentally ill individuals living in Tucson.  I loved that job.  You know those disheveled people you pass on the street of a big city?  The ones who are speaking out loud to no one in particular?  The ones that people walk around with a wide berth because they don’t look or act like everyone else?  The ones the collective “we” assume are probably dangerous?  Well, I knew their names, and they knew mine. 

The first time the Music Man and I were approached downtown by one of my patients, who ran up to me from across the street while smiling and yelling “Nurse Lori!  Nurse Lori!” before hugging me tightly, I thought the Music Man would faint.  One of my patients, I’ll call him Billy, loved to sing.  If he was singing, I knew he was OK.  When the singing stopped, our team knew it was time for him to be hospitalized. 

I took care of one very challenging patient during this season of my career.  This young man had been diagnosed with schizophrenia.  He was attached to reality by a very fragile thread.  Delusions and psychosis were his baseline, and his bizarre appearance, behavior and communication style made living in the community a challenge for him.  This young man had a real, legal name.  But when he would call me on the phone and I would ask who was calling, the name he would respond with was Funny Bunny.  The voices in his head would lie to him about his name, and he would believe the voices instead of what he knew to be true. 

I never called him by the name, Funny Bunny. I called him by his real name, and he would either ignore my efforts to ground him in reality, or he would smile. He was a guitar player and spoke of being famous. (I eventually learned he really was famous in Europe. But that is a story for another time.) Once, after scraping some money together, he recorded one of his original songs and had a small number of 45-speed records pressed for him to distribute. He sold me one for $1.00. As I was reading his thank you’s on the cheap, paper record cover, I noticed my name, “Nurse Lori”, sandwiched between thank you’s to his psychiatrist’s, Prolixin (one of his anti-psychotic medications) and Paul McCartney. 😊

Sometimes I am like this young man.  I have listened to the voices of life and believed the names that these voices scream in my direction.  When my dad died, the only parent I had, because of my mom’s dementia, who knew my name, the voices told me my name was “Orphan”.   When struggling with anxiety during the Music Man’s illness, the voices told me my name was “Weak”.  When feeling like I was failing to adequately juggle work, parenting and marriage successfully, the voices told me my name was “Failure.”

“Do not fear, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name. You are mine.”

Isaiah 43:1b (NIV)

Over the last several months, I have begun to seek to understand the names that God calls me.  I want to tether myself tightly to that reality, not the lying, negative voices of life that can scream other names in my direction. Isaiah 43:1b says, “Do not fear, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name.  You are mine.”  In the bible, it is revealed repeatedly that your name casts the vision for your life.

Some of the names God calls me (and you) are:

  • Sons and daughters
  • Beloved
  • Chosen
  • Friend
  • Precious
  • Honored
  • Bride
  • Dearest One
  • Masterpiece
He calls you…beloved, heir, the apple of his eye…

It doesn’t matter what name you have gone by in the past.  Or what lies you have believed in the past about who you are.  God’s names for us supersede them all.  Sometimes God even changes our name.  You can be sure of one thing.  When God changes your name, He changes your destiny.  Consider these examples of some of the individuals in the bible who received a new name from God.

  • Abram, his name meant (“father”) became Abraham (“father of many”).  Well past the age of child-bearing, as was his wife, God told Abraham that his wife would conceive a child.  In Genesis 26 God promises Abraham that his “descendants would be as numerous at the stars in the sky”.  That’s quite a promise for a couple who struggled with infertility their entire marriage. *NIV version
  • Sarai (her name meant “argumentative”) was Abraham’s wife.  God changed her name to Sarah (which means “princess”).  She became the son of Isaac after growing old believing she would never be a mother.
  • Jacob (his name meant “deceiver”), in the ultimate do-over, became Israel (“One who struggles with God and man and overcomes”). God prized this name and the man He gave the name to so much that Israel became the name of not just a person, but also a people and a nation!  What a perfect example of the transforming power of God when He gives us a new name.
  • Simon (his name meant “He has heard”) was an impetuous coward. Prior to Jesus’ crucifixion and in fear for his own life, he denied three times even knowing Jesus.   Jesus renamed him Peter, explaining upon this (Rock), He would build His church.  Peter died by crucifixion, too. But he was crucified upside down at his request because he did not feel worthy to die the exact same way that Jesus did. 

Four different individuals.  Four new names.  Four redemptive stories. 

Ask yourself these questions.  Are my inner thoughts and outward actions in line with who God says I am?  Do I live each day in freedom because of who I am and whose I am?  Understanding our name and identity, our true identity, will radically change how we see ourselves and how we live. 

What voices are you listening to? I hope you take the time to ponder the names that God has assigned to you. His name(s) will perfectly describe who you really are. Stop listening to the other voices. Walk in freedom, shoulders back, head held high, sons and daughters of the King.

What’s your name?

Nothing But Blue Skies

I love storms.  I always have.  I remember as a child sitting on my grandmother’s front porch as a storm would roll in.  Years ago, we didn’t have weather radar and storm warning systems in place.  We just watched the sky to alert us that a storm was on the horizon. 

Have you ever thought about the anatomy of a storm?  What gives it power?  In Tennessee, where I live now, most storms occur in the spring and summer months.  Fueled by warm air and moisture, clouds form and storms result.  Add in cold air from the upper atmosphere, allowing the cold air and warm air to collide, and you occasionally run the risk of severe storms like tornadoes.

The weather situation in Nashville in 2017 as a result of Hurricane Harvey

But back on my grandma’s porch, I didn’t know or care about how storms worked.  I just loved sitting next to my grandmother, enjoying the sweet aroma of the rain hitting the earth.  We marveled at nature’s fireworks as lightning would streak across the sky.  We would count how many seconds passed between the time the lightning flashed and the thunder would sound.  We would jump and giggle when the lightning and thunder would occur simultaneously.   

I remember lying in my bed, tucked in for the night at home, and feeling unafraid during storms. My childhood innocence allowed me to feel safe under the covers, certain that the storm outside my window would stay right where it was supposed to be…outside.

On the rare occasion when the storms would worsen, my parents would march us down the stairs to the basement to ride out the wind and the rain.  I never remember feeling afraid, only safe in the refuge of the basement, in the presence of my parents who loved me and were watching over me.

This is a tree in my mom’s front yard. It looks like the photo was taken during a foggy morning. But I took this photo a few weeks ago during an unusually hard, springtime rain and thunderstorm. The rain came so hard that it made seeing the end of mom’s gravel lane a challenge.

I’m an adult now and storms still come.  Some are actually weather-related storms.  I still don’t mind these storms even though I no longer have a basement at my disposal.  Other storms I’ve faced since entering adulthood are life storms.  These life storms are the really scary ones.  Health scares, financial challenges, loss of friendships, jobs, and family members all blow into our lives with the velocity and strength of a dangerous whirlwind.  Sometimes we see the storm coming and can prepare.  Sometimes the storm comes out of nowhere, catching us off-guard and shaking us to the core.

We can’t escape these types of storms by retreating to a basement.  So where can we hide and seek shelter?   Psalm 91 has been such a comfort to me when I find myself in the middle of these storms.  It reads, “This I declare about the Lord: He alone is my refuge, my place of safety; he is my God, and I trust him.”  

We really can trust God, you know.  The gospels talk about a time that Jesus was riding in a boat on a lake with some of his friends he called disciples.  He was tired from teaching and healing the crowds of people who followed him everywhere he went.  So he fell asleep.  While he was sleeping, a storm blew in over the lake that scared his friends to death.  They actually thought they were going to drown.  So they woke Jesus up.  Jesus spoke out, and rebuked the storm.  Immediately all was calm.  Luke 8:25 says, “The disciples were terrified and amazed.  ‘Who is this man?’ they asked each other. ‘When he gives a command, even the winds and the waves obey him.’”

Realizing that God is our refuge should elicit the same emotions in us that the disciples felt about Jesus.  When we are in his presence, it is appropriate and right that we would feel both terrified and amazed.  We feel terrified because we are interacting with the creator of the universe.  We feel amazed because that very creator of everything, including us, wants to be intimately and personally involved in our lives.   

 “Whether or not storms come, we can not choose. But where we stare during a storm, that we can.”

Max Lucado

But being in a relationship with God does not guarantee a life of sunshine and clear sailing.  I have learned that lesson all too well.  (If you are new to this blog, check out a previous post entitled “Pancho and Lefty: A Warrior’s Tale” for more details )  There is a popular song that addresses this exact topic.  It’s called “Sometimes He Calms the Storm.”  That’s what we all want, isn’t it?  For life’s storms to go away?  The song lyrics go on to say that when the storms are raging, sometimes “He calms his child” instead of the storm.  With this outcome, we are given the opportunity to grow in our faith…conquering our fears as we look our storms squarely in the eye.     

A man by the name of Horatio Stafford wrote a very famous song.  That song is a hymn that has been sung in churches by millions of people over many, many years.  The name of that hymn?  “It is Well with my Soul.”  Stafford weathered may storms throughout his life. He lost his son when he was only two-years old.  He faced financial ruin during the famous Chicago fire.  Later, after planning a trip to Europe, he sent his wife and 4 daughters ahead of him by ship, with plans to meet up with them later.  The ship sank and all four of his daughters tragically lost their lives.  He learned of the accident after receiving a telegraph from his wife explaining that she was the lone survivor of the family.  Traveling by ship to meet his wife, and filled with the sadness of a grieving father, Stafford was informed when the ship reached the spot where the lives of his daughters were lost.  It was during that time of looking out over the water that he penned the words to that age old hymn. 

“When peace like a river, attendeth my way,

When sorrows like sea billows roll.

Whatever my lot, though hast taught me to say

It is well, it is well, with my soul.

Lyrics by Horatio G. Stafford

I want to be like Mr. Stafford, don’t you?  No matter what storm life may throw at me, let my response be, “It is well with my soul.”   I still love a good thunderstorm.  But I look at life’s storms differently now.  I am grateful for the lessons they bring. 

The first time I flew on an airplane, I was in my twenties.  The skies were dark, the wind blew and the rain fell in sheets as our plane took off.  But after climbing for just a few minutes, the plane broke through the clouds and my window seat allowed me to witness the blue sky and brilliant sun that had been shining all along.  I just couldn’t see the sun because the clouds blocked my view. 

The view from 35,000 feet

If you are struggling in a stormy season, remember that God wants to be our refuge and safety.  He is still there, even when the clouds block our view of his goodness.  Look for him. He is better than any basement on any stormy day.