Re-name

When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the Lord appeared to Abram, and said to him, “I am God Almighty; walk before me, and be blameless. And I will make my covenant between me and you, and will make you exceedingly numerous.” Then Abram fell on his face; and God said to him, “As for me, this is my covenant with you: You shall be the ancestor of a multitude of nations. No longer shall your name be Abram, but your name shall be Abraham; for I have made you the ancestor of a multitude of nations. I will make you exceedingly fruitful; and I will make nations of you, and kings shall come from you. I will establish my covenant between me and you, and your offspring after you throughout their generations, for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and to your offspring after you. And I will give to you, and to your offspring after you, the land where you are now an alien, all the land of Canaan, for a perpetual holding; and I will be their God.”  Genesis 17:1-8

God has asked Abram to leave his home, soak in the starry night, and even wait...and wait...and wait.  Remember the 10 years from the last post?  So, here comes God again and Abram fell on his face.  To be sure, that could certainly be reverence...or maybe just pure exhaustion.  If I was Abram, I might wondering, "Good Lord, what now God?  Do I need to look at a cow jumping over the moon?  Or maybe a pretty cross stitch that tells me to trust?"  Abram does not even utter a word, just receives his new name.  He will now be Abraham.

And with my initial sarcastic response out of the way, I actually see something so powerful and prayerful and sometimes virtually impossible to do, at work in this passage.  Abram/Abraham has been waiting (and waiting).  He has trusted and even took matters into his own hands in chapter 16.  But God keeps coming to him...and in the passage above asks Abraham to RE-NAME and RE-FRAME the issue/situation of his life.

Often when we are mired in the messiness of life, we cannot see as clearly as we think.  When we are exhausted by waiting, our tired eyes and souls don't see as clearly as we think we do.  When change moves at a snails pace, even though our surroundings are practically standing still, we don't process as clearly as we think we do.  Instead, we keep returning to the same old tired explanations and responses day after day.  Our office environment is toxic and our co-worker has always bothered us, so when some project goes south obviously it is Bob's fault.  It was last time and will be next time.

The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again, but expecting different results (can also be the definition of the church sometimes too unfortunately).  God calls us to constantly re-name and re-frame.  That does not necessarily mean we will change, but it does mean we will challenge our own perceptions, our own accountability, and our own responsibility for the brokenness that can happen in life.

We need opportunities for new names.  To be sure, a rose by another name is still sweet...perhaps by renaming we open ourselves to see/smell/hear/taste/experience something different in that flower; or more to the point: that person and that experience/event.  This, of course, is NOT easy.  It will challenge us and can even change us.  Once we hear that "Bob" from above is going through a divorce maybe our heart softens.  Or once we see that we were lax on our part of the project, we can see that we are not perfect either.  Or once we notice and rename that we are not always right and the smartest person in the room...that will make us re-think...re-name...re-frame what we are going through.

So, I encourage you to do that.

Where are you waiting for change?

Where are you mired in the messiness?

Where do you need to stop being in a rut, spinning your wheels?

Here is the thing about re-naming and re-framing...we NEED others to help.  This work is too hard to do alone.  Of course, that will mean being vulnerable.  The person we talk to might re-name the situation in a way we don't like, don't want to accept.  The person we talk to might shine a light on something we were hoping would remain hidden.  Or perhaps we'd rather stay stuck?

I pray that as you talk with others about places where we need to rename and re-frame, there will be more than a trace of God's grace for you and those around you.  

It certainly helped Abraham...eventually.

Blessings