We Found Our Name

Want your love for something, someone to grow? Get around somebody who loves. Go ahead, get addicted. You and I are already “shooting up” on numerous addictive behaviors. We’re wired to crave, but you already know this. You already know we’re driven by passions. Maybe even some of them are passions for good things. No doubt, we turn some of those passions for good things into ultimate things. Things we can’t live without. Something close to worship. Something close to idols. Idols because they dilute or replace supreme loves.

So, how do we cut through the daily frenzy of many voices demanding our love? How do we keep in perspective our better loves? Eternal loves? Eternal loves that start now?

I’m talking about a love for God and a love for His Word. Ever hear God speak to that deep part of your soul, your name? Ever read scripture and somehow find your name? Find your identity? A name like “beloved?”

I cherish the picture of my twin grandsons, Braden and Colin, picking up volumes of C. H. Spurgeon’s Treasury of David I had on my coffee table, intently searching through the pages for their name. All they needed to flame their passions, to give out a whoop of joy, was to find a “B” or a “C.”

I’d like to think they found something to love because of my love for C. H. Spurgeon’s love for God’s Word. After all, he wrote three substantial volumes of commentary on one book of the Bible, Psalms. Braden and Colin got around something I love because I got around someone who loves. We found our name.

Maybe we could get addicted to finding, reading, listening for our name. Maybe we should get around those who love the things we want to love forever. I have an example. My pastors. When they have prayed with me, they always sneak in a request that God would grow my love for Him and His Word. They extend it to include my family. They ask God to direct our supreme love toward Him and His Word. My wife. My daughter and sons. My grandchildren.

The prayers of my pastors, elders, and friends, on my behalf, mostly unheard by me, stealthily shape my loves.

Inside the volumes Braden and Colin were probing are some words written by Asaph, author of a few Psalms. They are words from a love song (Psalms 73:25) expressed to the One who knew his name:

“Whom have I in heaven but you?

And earth has nothing I desire besides you.”

Asaph, or rather the God who wooed him, makes me want to load these words in a needle and shoot them in my veins so I gain proper perspective on my loves! Join me for this addiction, for in them we find our name.