Success gurus tell us that remembering and repeating people’s names is a key to making good impressions and thereby climbing the ladder of success in life and business. They say that we all love to hear our names spoken – it’s like a balm for our battered, needy egos.
Well, I’m sorry not to balm up anyone’s ego, but I find myself having an awful time remembering people’s names these days. Perhaps it’s due to a mid-life brain cell exodus or something, but I seem to be frequently engaged in conversations with people whose names I simply cannot retrieve from my mental hard drive. And it’s not a good feeling.
We’d like for everyone to know our names and to bask in the wonder of our personhood. I’ve been on the receiving end of these “brain-hiccup” situations — when I could tell someone was frantically trying to recall my name — and it isn’t particularly flattering, but I certainly understand.
Or at least I usually understand. There was one time I didn’t. Several years ago, I was in the surgical holding area of a hospital awaiting a knee operation. Lined up down the room, neatly parked inside curtain partitions, were other pre-surgery patients enjoying various stages of drug-induced unawareness. In my foggy stupor, I heard my name being spoken by a nurse. Unfortunately, the nurse was talking to the lady in the parking space next to mine.
“Well, Mrs. Crum, what are we having surgery for today?” she asked. I was aware that she wasn’t asking me. She wasn’t in my parking space. She was next door, asking somebody who was decidedly not Mrs. Crum what kind of surgery Mrs. Crum was having today. I was jolted out of my blissful stupor into the reality that I had been confused with another patient. The ramifications of such a name mix-up were not peaceful to ponder, even with the help of “happy” drugs.
“Hey … wait … she’s not Mrs. Crum. I am,” I slurred through the partition. The nurse poked her head around the curtain, flipped through some charts, and looked like she wanted to be swallowed by the earth. I got the distinct feeling that we had narrowly avoided one of those hospital horror stories you see on “60 Minutes.”
“What was she having done?” I groggily asked the nurse, thinking for an instant that if my cubicle neighbor was scheduled for some wonderfully transforming cosmetic procedure, perhaps I should have kept my mouth shut. The nurse didn’t answer me – she was too busy trying to act competent.
Yep, names can be important all right. While we humans may forget or get them mixed up, it’s comforting to know that God doesn’t. In fact, the Bible says that God has our names inscribed on the palm of His hand. Because He can’t remember them? No, it’s more like a heavenly tattoo – an expression of His love for us.
God also says He’ll change our names one day. (I’ll bet that’s good news for some of you!) But before we get that last, perfect name, Jesus has already given us a new identity. One of my favorite worship choruses says it well: “I will change your name; you shall no longer be called wounded, outcast, lonely or afraid. I will change your name; your new name shall be confidence, joyfulness, overcoming one, faithfulness, friend of God, one who seeks My face.”
What’s in a name? Plenty. God knows yours … and that’s a good thing.