Names

So I used up all the pages in my last journal. this is quite an accomplishment because I usually lose my journal before I finish it. I lose everything. My brother bought each of my family members a pen that he thought fit them well. For me he bought not one pen but a box of bic pens simply because he knew that if he bought me a nice pen--I'd lose it. Actually, he did buy me a nice pen once--a gift for being the best man in his wedding. I bought him a nice pen too, and so we had a talk about whether or not we were going to use the pens with the risk of losing them or if we'd lock them in a safe and never touch them so as to ensure their protection. We opted for the former, agreeing that whoever lost their pen first, the other person wouldn't get mad. He was true to his word--but he'll never buy me a nice pen again. Anyway, all of this is to say praise God for myspace, because now it's no longer my responsibility to keep track of my journal. I'll try this blogging thing out--sometimes I'll make them private and sometimes public because if you saw everything that went through my head it might scare you.

I'm embarking on a project today-- to read through 1 Peter devotionally. I expect that all bible reading should be done devotionally-- but what I mean is that my central purpose is not to simply "understand" what Peter is saying but rather for my reading of the text to draw me into the presence of God and for that encounter to change the way I think and act on a daily basis. No doubt the latter cannot be done without also doing the former. But, I imagine that there will be times when my reading of the text will stir up something in me which is not directly related to the concerns which Peter is addressing, and I'm not going to worry too much about it if this happens.

"Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ. . ."

Who am I? Am I a musician? Am I a pastor? Am I a Worship pastor? Am I a Christian? Am I an American? Am I a Dave Matthews fan? Can I be so bold as to say that anything defines who I am? Or am I a random collection of biological and cultural influences? When I meet someone on the street I tell them that my name is Kevin. And that's it. "Hi, I'm Kevin." I suppose that's the normal way of greeting someone--but really, as I read this passage I realize that the way I greet people is pretty lame. What does that person know about me after such a greeting? I don't know what "Kevin" means. . . wait--let me look it up on google, I'll be right back. . .

. . .Sweet!!! p.atheresa from Yahoo Answers says that Kevin means "beautiful or handsome." Of course, when I go to introduce myself to someone they are already going to know that, so there's no need for me to rub it in!!!! "Shawna" from Yahoo Answers says that Kevin means "gentle or lovable." Am I? This seems like the kind of title that can only be given to someone after the fact. I mean really, when I was born my parents had no idea what kind of perosn I'd be--gentle or lovable--maybe dumb, mean, arrogant--how were they to know? Maybe we should start naming people not when they are born but when they die. Or at least we could have people vote at our funerals as to whether or not we lived up to the meaning of our name or if maybe we should alter it on the epitaph.

But I digress. Peter totally shows me up on how to do a greeting. Using only a few more words he is able to communicate the very heart of who he is. He is an apostle-- a messenger of Jesus Christ. That's who he is. That defines him. That's what his life is all about. Being a messenger implies of course that you have something to say. You have a message. This is very dangerous today. Nobody is supposed to have a message. It's arrogant to have a message. It's arrogant to assume that you know something that someone else doesn't. I wonder if that's what Peter means when he says that we are "strangers in the world." Already, from the get go, simply with his greeting he has shown himself to not be of this world-- certainly not of the relativistic world in which we live today.

Am I a messenger of Jesus Christ? Can I legitimately make that a part of my greeting? Does that define who I am? What will that look like today? I don't mean "today" like "in this day and age." But I mean TODAY. October 5, 2007. I'm at City Dock right now. At the very least, maybe I'll smile when ever I make eye contact with someone.