And yet, and yet…

If you want to give your child an unfortunate name, I’d go with “Sylvia Pamela Risk.”

That way every time she’d call someone on the phone, they’d not answer due to being called by S.Pam Risk. [You may now chuckle.]

This gets me thinking on the reality of names. Throughout time there have been unfortunate names for people. Ima Hogg. Ross Stritch. Dr. Will Hurt. Stupid McDaniels. [Look ’em up…all real].

Even in the Bible some people had unfortunate names. Heman. Maher-Shalal-Hash-Baz. Ichabod. Lo-Debar. And on.

In life, we don’t get a chance to choose what name we’ll inherit, nor what heritage we receive. In a lot of ways, we may even today want to distance ourselves from identities we claimed in earlier parts of our lives.

I think of who I was in Middle School, and think, “Ugh. What was that guy thinking?” Or in High School being nicknamed “Kill ’em Gillum” and “Vanilla Gorilla.” Yeesh.

We may have unfortunate names. And yet, there’s beauty even when a name goes awry.

Throughout the Bible, names are not just received. Often they are given. They are a truth spoken over a person, the person prayed for. From Abram to Abraham, from Sarai to Sarah, from Jacob to Israel, from Simon bar Jonah to Peter, from Saul to Paul. Where God intervenes, even unfortunate names can be redeemed.

You can end the cycle of unfortunate names. By the ways you speak identity into people, you have a choice. You can continue the drudgery of the Nimrods and the Gomers. Or you can choose to “be holy as the Lord is holy” and speak a new name to those who need it. You can speak encouragement to those starving for a kind word. You can speak advice to those seeking wisdom. You can speak love to those who are unloved.

If we start to speak to people with the truth that God has spoken about them through Scripture, you can see dust raise its head and ghosts come alive. We can serve alongside the Father in seeing dry bones live as we speak life with him into a world that is beaten down and trodden by the lies of names given by the world.

Because while “Kill ’em Gillum” is a pretty unfortunate name, “Beloved Child of the King” has a much better ring to it.

Signs and wonders y’all.

“No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you.” John 15:15