Isaiah 62:1-5
There was a time in my life when I honestly wished it could all start over. I was in a place where although I was successful in a good job making decent money, I wasn't happy. I distinctly remember thinking one night, "There has to be more than this." I also remember going forward from that day in search of what that "something better" was.
I had good friends, my family loved me, I just met my current wife, so what else was there. Within a year of meeting my wife we found a church and God soon became a large part of every decision I made. Yet, and still unknown to me, I felt as though I wasn't complete.
It would take a few more years before I began working with youth and young adults and it's in the lessons I learned from them that I finally found what I had been searching for; my self. Every week we would talk about the three-level love of God, one another, and self and on one of those weeks, as I was talking to a youth about how he was okay just the way he is, it hit me - so am I. I had found me and that completed the circle.
The kids at church began calling me Uncle, a moniker I was proud to carry. To this day, even in school, when I am called uncle I take it as a sign of respect not only from the kids, but for myself. To have a new name, one that we believe to best represent who we are, is to become a new person.
I am happy to be all the names I am: uncle, husband, father, brother, son, friend. Those are names given to me by people who love me, a love shared between myself, those around me, and God. I wonder what my next name will be.
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