My reading this past week took me to Mark 3, where the names of the twelve disciples are listed. To be honest, I usually just skim through this section of scripture…because I never really thought their names were that big of a deal. But when I read them this time, one of the verses really stood out to me. It was verse 17 where it says, “James and John (the sons of Zebedee, but Jesus nicknamed them ‘Sons of Thunder’).” I don’t know about you…but I think it would have been awesome to have Jesus give me a nickname. I mean, how cool would that be?
That is, as long as it referred to a positive attribute of mine. I would have been thrilled if scripture would have listed my name, and then clarified that Jesus nicknamed me “Patient LuAnn”…or “Daughter of Peace”…or even the title of my first devotional book, Image Seeker. Any of those would have been amazing.
Unfortunately, many of my attributes aren’t so positive. If you have read Image Seeker, you may remember that growing up my nickname was Walter Cronkite…yeah…not really what a young girl wanted to be called. But the name was fitting…because I did talk a lot and I always wanted to beat my siblings in telling news to the world. In other words…I received the nickname because I was a blabber-mouth!
That “label” is probably ok when you are 10, but it’s not so pretty at the age I am now. My lack of patience probably isn’t something I would want Jesus to refer to either if He gave me a nickname. Moreover, neither is my sometimes cynical attitude very becoming. What if scripture referred to me as “Impatient LuAnn” or “One Who Blabs” or “Skeptical One”. Maybe I should be thankful that Jesus didn’t list a nickname for me in scripture.
Of course, those around me probably have nicknames for me and I’m confident some of those aren’t real flattering either. The sobering fact is that the world is watching me…and you…and will label us by what they see us doing and saying. Will they see love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control? Or will they hear us saying one thing…but living out something entirely different?
Now we know that we won’t always make others happy and our ultimate goal should be to please our Savior. Each of us are a work in progress, and fortunately, Jesus loves us enough to keep chiseling away at those attributes that aren’t very pleasing to Him. I think as we look more and more like Him, others are bound to see His reflection in us and will hopefully want what we have. Maybe then they will give you and me the nickname that we all should be striving to receive, “Christ-Follower”.
“Anyone who wants to serve me must follow me,
because my servants must be where I am.
And the Father will honor anyone who serves me.”
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