He who named me

i think often of the ways that a name can be spoken, how it can roll off lips with such sweetness, or (to steal from a branches song), it can be breathed like a love song. how a name can hold so much affection, how when you say my name, kara lee, i feel known. and that feels good.

my name always felt weird though, like it got stuck in your mouth and came out jumbled, harsh, too boxy. i was afraid that i would be jumbled, harsh, boxy too. i thought about it often--how i hated it because it didn't feel feminine or meaningful, how i was frustrated with every mispronunciation, how i planned to change it as soon as i turned eighteen.

i'm glad that i didn't.

because what a cool thing that we have names; names that we take for granted, names that identify us and place us in our families and in our context and anchor us to our humanity, names that make us unique and set us apart, names that make us distinct from our 5,999,999,999 neighbors

and isn't that exactly what we want?

to be called by name, defined, affirmed and find meaning

in our identity

in our relationships

in our faith

in our purpose

by Someone who knows exactly what we need

kara (kah-ra): beloved friend

"...if the gospel of Jesus is just some formula I obey in order to get taken off the naughty list and put on a nice list, then it doesn't meet the deep need of the human condition, it doesn't interact with the great desire of my soul, and it has nothing to do with the hidden (or rather, obvious) language we are all speaking. But if it is more, if it is a story about humanity falling away from the community that named it, and an attempt to bring humanity back to that community, and if it is more than a series of ideas, but rather speaks directly into this basic human need we are feeling, then the gospel of Jesus is the most relevant message in the history of mankind."

--Donald Miller//Searching For God Knows What