Piper…Lyric…Ireland…Brooklyn…Zowie…Sailor…Satchel…Rumer…Scout…Apple. These are some of the strangest names given to children. The worst part is that they have to live with it for the rest of their lives. Or do they? There is a story in Scripture where Jesus is getting ready to call his first disciples. He meets Andrew, who is ready to follow immediately and Andrew runs home to get his brother, Simon. John 1:41-42 reads: “He [Andrew] found first his own brother Simon and said to him, ‘We have found the Messiah (which translated means Christ). He brought him to Jesus. Jesus looked at him and said, ‘You are Simon the son of John; you shall be called Cephas’ (which is translated Peter).”
Cephas is the Aramaic name Jesus gave Simon. Peter is the Greek translation and it means “Rock.” We’ve read and watched Peter transform into the Rock, on which Jesus planned to build His Church. From what I remember in Scripture, Peter was the only one of Jesus’ original twelve disciples who had his name changed. Paul was originally Saul, but his name was changed for different reasons entirely. So, Peter has to get used to this new name. Andrew has to remember to call his brother by this new name. I bet a couple of other disciples knew him by his original name, too. Do you ever wonder if they thought Peter did it himself?
When I was 12 years old, on my birthday my dad told me that he had some money squirreled away in case I thought I might want to change my name. Talk about identity crisis!! I tried different names on: David? Ralph? Nick? Nothing sounded right so I stuck with “Jerry.” In college, I was tired of telling professors that I went by “Jerry” instead of “Jeremy” and was ready for a bit of an identity change, so I went by “Jeremy” for a while. It didn’t go well because I could never remember that people were calling me by that name until they looked in the face and repeated it for probably the 17th time!
Here is the point: Jesus was preparing Simon for his greater calling. In order to do that, he had to completely overhaul who Simon was. The first step in the overhaul was to change his name – change it into something strong. Peter grew into his name, but it took a lot of work on God’s part and a lot of work on Peter’s part. How is God preparing you for your greater calling? Is it going to come with a name change? Know that it may take a lot of work on God’s part to shape you into that man or woman He desires you to be, but it starts with our own desire to “become” that person God desires us to be. Have you started?
Blessings!
