I’ve Got A Name
One of my all-time favorite singer/songwriters is Jim Croce. During his brief career, he wrote lyrics and music that spoke to my generation and has continued to speak to new generations as his music is rediscovered by them. Some of his songs display the deepest emotions of the human heart. Such as one that Deb and I used during our wedding ceremony more than 48 years ago called “Time In Bottle”. The first line says: “If I could save time in a bottle, the first thing that I like to do is to save every day ‘till eternity passes away just to spend them with you”. Whoever thought of those romantic words before Croce wrote and sang them?
Some of his songs were just plain fun. “Bad, Bad Leroy Brown” and “Don’t Mess Around Jim” come to my mind.
One song of his that has a great tune is perfect and yet so outdated that kids today would have no idea what he was saying. “Operator, oh could you help me place this call?” Then later in the song he tells the operator “You can keep the dime.” I’m guessing young people don’t know about telephone operators and probably don’t know of anything they can buy for a dime.
One of Croce’s songs that spoke to me is called “I Got A Name”. Here are the beginning lines that I connected with.
“Like the pine trees lining the winding road
I’ve got a name, I’ve got a name
Like the singing bird and the croaking toad
I’ve got a name, I’ve got a name.
And I carry it with me like my daddy did”
Your Name Is Important
My parents were salt of the earth people. They worked hard and took good care of their family. Over the years they were involved in their community and their church. They cared about the people in their lives. The way they lived their lives earned the respect of all who knew them. Naturally, that respect translated to the family name.
Every time I listened to Croce sing “I Got A Name”, I would visualize my father. It would remind me that I’m carrying his name and it’s my responsibility to keep it respectable. When I hear it now, it still reminds me. However, at my age, I’m now wondering how I’ve done more than I am asking how I’m doing.
I have met several people in my lifetime who cannot come up with any good things to say about their father, or sometimes either of their parents. I feel very sad for them because from my perspective, they got cheated. I suppose those people who grew up in horrible circumstances have difficulty understanding any value of bringing honor to the name their fathers gave them. But I do hope they see the importance of bringing honor to the family name now because it is their name. For good or for bad, each of us is known for something. Even those who may have had terrible parents can change the identifying factors of their family name by the way they live.
Think about what you’re known for. As the family name is passed to the next generations, what will they be known for? I hope that I have provided a good foundation which my kids and grandkids can build upon.
The Most Prized Name
My brother and I were named after our grandfathers. There have been times in my life when I thought my brother received the better of the two names. However, when I think about it I think we were given the best names for our personalities. My brother is not a Fred and I’m definitely not a Tom. I prize our names.
How good do you do at remembering names? I work hard at doing it. People have commented on the fact that I can remember so many names. I also have a lot of people tell me they can’t remember names at all.
Some might think that because I’m a pastor, I was somehow trained to remember names. That’s not the case at all. I began focusing on remembering names when I first worked for John Deere in Dubuque, Iowa. The first two weeks I was there, I was put on day-shift to be trained for my job. Then the third week, I was moved to second-shift. On my first day on second-shift, I was walking up the outside stairs to the locker room. As I climbed up the stairs, the day-shirt guys were coming down passing me on my left. One after another said “Hi Fred”, or “How ya doin’ Fred” or “It’s good to see you Fred” or “Have good night Fred.” At first, I asked myself why I was so memorable. Then I realized that I am not memorable. It was just that these men somehow were able to remember names. I was shocked because I didn’t know any of their names! That’s when I told myself I needed to become better at name remembrance.
One of the coolest things about God is that He knows my name and He remembers my name. The Bible teaches us that when we believe in Christ and accept the salvation of our souls God offers us through Him, God writes down our name. For me, that’s beyond special. That’s spectacular! Why would the God who created the universe care so much about me that He would go to the effort of writing my name down in a book?
When I gave my life to Christ, not only was my name recorded in Heaven, I was given a title to describe me. Christian. The word Christian is of course Christ with “ian” added to the end of it. The “ian” literally means “the party of”. The party of Christ, or one that follows Christ.
My first name speaks to who I am as an individual. My last name speaks about our family. The title speaks about who Christ is and what He is like. I have a responsibility to hold up the family name. But even more important I have the responsibility to be a good representative of Jesus.
2 Corinthians 5:20 reminds us that as Christians we are ambassadors. Ambassadors are those who are appointed to represent their home country to another nation. As ambassadors they reside in a nation to which they’re appointed where they speak for and live out the desires of the nation of their citizenship.
As Christians, we need to always remember this world is not our home. We are citizens of Heaven. That means we are aliens on Earth. As ambassadors for Christ, we have been appointed to positions that come with more responsibility than any position anyone holds in the whole world. As people hear us and watch us, what picture do we paint of Jesus and His Heaven?
I’ve got a name. I carry it with me. I hope I’ve done well through the years representing it. Although it doesn’t matter one iota whether or not my name is ever remembered by anyone. What’s important is that my life does well at causing the name of Christ, the most prized name of all, to be remembered.
Post Script
If you have trouble remembering names and would like to do better, here are a few tips.
FOCUS. The first thing we have is to not allow ourselves to be distracted when being introduced to someone. If you don’t absorb the name when introduced, you obviously won’t remember it. I suppose another way to put this first point is that we have to care. We have to “care” about people enough to care about their names.
WORK AT IT. It requires implementing some habits to help with your memory. Repeating the name. Write down the name. In some cases, word association helps.
WORK AT IT OUT LOUD. When introduced repeat the names directly to those to whom you have just been introduced. If you’re not focused on them and learning their name, you probably won’t do this. But here’s an example of what you need to say. “It’s nice to meet you Bob and Mary.” However, don’t say this if their names are not Bob and Mary. But I’m sure you get my point. Repeating their name accomplishes two things. It verifies you’ve gotten their name correct and helps lock the name in your mind.
WORD ASSOCIATION. Sometimes this works and sometimes it doesn’t. Some time back I met a woman who has the same name as one of our daughters. When I was introduced to her, I said, “Kiera?” She said, “Yes”. (Point No. 3). I then said, “Let me guess, Kiera Lynn.” She said, “How did you know?” I won’t forget her name unless I forget our daughter’s name. However, her husband’s name is John. Word association is hard practice when names a extremely common.
ASK AGAIN. Several months after first meeting Kiera and John met them again. This time I greeted Kiera by using her name, and then I apologized to John that I’d forgotten his name and asked for it again. Sometimes we don’t have because we don’t ask. People are generally not offended when asking them to remind you again what their name is because they can’t remember names either.
HAVE BACKUP PEOPLE: I’m not as good at remembering names as some people think. I have certain people in my life who also work at remembering names. Many times, I have to refer to them for a name that’s not coming triggering my remembering bank.
DON’T GET DISCOURAGED. I hear a lot of people who indicate they’ve simply given up on trying to remember. They have given up and decided that, for themselves, remembering names is impossible. If you can remember your address, your phone number, or the names of athletes, singers, and actors, you can remember the names of the people you meet.
I've got a name. You've got a name. Names are important.