Names are important. They have power. They define us.

They’re more than a bunch of letters grouped together to sound pleasant to the ear. Names are more than a convenience allowing us to talk to each other. Names are a gift from God. They contain His power. They define things. They define us.

“A good name is more desirable than great riches; to be esteemed is better than silver or gold.” – Proverbs 22:1 (NIV)

God said, “Let there be light.” And there was. He named it into existence.

God said, “Let there be an expanse between the waters to separate water from water.” And there was. He called it sky. And He called the dry ground land.

From that land, God made man. He made Adam (Earth). Then God gave the power to name to Adam.

Adam named the animals. And he named Eve (Mother of All). And that power has been given to us.

Consider the freedom that comes in naming a fear you have, or the cause of shame you hide, or the root of anger strangling you. When I own my fears, say them out loud, identify them, then I loosen the controlling grip they have over me. That’s power. That’s the power of a name.

When I was born, my mother gave me a name — Christopher. It means Christ-bearer. My Father gave me a name too. It’s a bit different. It came later in my life. It’s my “true name,” the name He calls me. And it’s a name I’m still trying to grow into — Love Giver and Teacher.

When God gave me a name, like He did with Abraham, Sarah and Jacob, He said to me,

“For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light.” — Ephesians 5:8 (NIV)

When God gave me my name, He said I am a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come. God’s Word is helping me to understand my name. It tells me to surrender self, to imitate God, and to live a life of love.

“Be imitators of God, therefore, as dearly loved children and live a life of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.” — Ephesians 5:1-2 (NIV)”

I recently saw a story from eastern Indonesia about a mother in our Child Survival Program (CSP) that highlights the significance of a name. This mother, Yudea, is 21 years old and has been part of the CSP for three years. She has two children.

Before enrolling in the CSP, Yudea “didn’t know the importance of having a healthy environment. She didn’t know the benefit of boiling water before drinking it, or washing hands before touching meals. She never asked her children to take a bath or wash their hands and feet after they play. She didn’t know that if someone doesn’t clean up his or her body, he or she can get sick easily.”

When Yudea gave birth to her first child, “she couldn’t buy milk or vitamins to boost her daughters health, so her daughter got sick easily.” After enrolling in the CSP, this changed.

“She received nutritious food, vitamins, milk and a lot of information that supported her as a pregnant mother. She also was able to go to regular pregnancy checkups at the doctor without having to think twice about what she and her husband would have to pay.

“After giving birth to a healthy child, Yudea showed her thankfulness to God by naming her son Cisipi . . . Cisipi regularly receives additional food, vitamins, milk and other programs that are essential to healthy growth. Cisipi doesn’t get sick easily, like other children in his neighborhood.

“As Cisipi plays with friends his same age, Cisipi looks different. He is more active than the other children. When other children don’t have extra energy to run around, Cisipi can run everywhere without feeling tired at all. Cisipi is a fast learner and he loves to ask his mother questions.”

Cisipi is the acronym of our Child Survival Program (CSP), with an “i” added between each letter. The name means “grateful to God.”

“It is a form of my gratitude because the CSP has made my son grow as a healthy and smart child.”

Names are important. They contain meaning. They define who we are. And usually we’re not who we think we are.

What does Compassion’s name mean to you? Is it a good name

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If you close your eyes and think of Africa, what do you see?

Are you picturing dynamic leaders bustling about in business suits? Or are you picturing the “wretched of the earth”— men loafing, distended bellies and flies in the eyes?

Andrew Rugasira, founder of Uganda’s Good African Coffee, recently spoke at Willow Creek’s Leadership Summit and asserted that many us of harbor a stereotypical “basket case” image of Africa, that it’s all chaos and corruption and need.

Well, you might say, Africa seems in fact to be a basket case. There are men loafing and distended bellies and flies in the eyes. But that is not all there is to Africa.

There are also God-given rich resources and great potential. This question of our perception of not only Africa, but all of the developing world, is central to how we respond to the needs we see.

When we see the flies, we give handouts — which can promote the self-perpetuating cycle of dependence on the one hand and condescension on the other.

When we see potential, we focus on development.

According to Good African Coffee’s Web site, which promotes trade with the developing world rather than aid,

“Unless there is a radical shift in the way the world sees Africa, there is no foreseeable hope of ever reaching the Millennium Development Goals of universal primary education, poverty reduction and the elimination of avoidable infant deaths that were set for 2015.”

With this “basket case” view of the developing world, do we really believe it will develop … or do we somewhere in the back of our minds blithely check off giving as our “do good” opportunity, without reference to the end results? Checking our perceptions will revolutionize our response.

But besides this pragmatic reasoning for changing our stereotypical view of “the bottom billion,” we have a much deeper reason.

We are the Body of Christ.

Compassion partners with churches in the developing world — they aren’t our subjects or our charity cases, they are our partners. But beyond partnership, they are our fellow brothers and sisters in Christ.

In the first century, Paul advocated between the Macedonian, Corinthian and Jerusalem churches (check out 2 Corinthians 8-9).

The Corinthian church struggled with moral issues, being from a very worldly city, but they also were wealthy and wise and earnest. The Macedonian churches were poor, but full of joy and generosity.

How would Paul have wanted the various churches to view one another?

That the Corinthians would look down their wise noses at the poor and helpless church in Jerusalem? (“Here come those needy Jerusalemites, needing our money again.”)

Or that the Macedonians would judge those carnal Corinthians? (“Those Corinthians may have money, but they don’t have the Spirit like we do.”)

By no means! They were to view and treat one another not through the filter of their weakness or need, but as dear and beloved brothers and sisters in the faith.

Jordan Linscombe, Compassion’s Church Engagement Manager, says

“Partnership is important because we better understand others in Christ’s Body, ourselves and the One whose love brings us together.”

As we partner with our brothers and sisters in other countries, we have the opportunity to operate as the Body of Christ — each of us playing a different role, each learning from and being edified by the other as we draw closer to Christ Himself.

This isn’t our chance to be the heroes and saviors. This is our chance to be a family.

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Wouldn’t it be nice if I could tell you that faithfully every morning now I have kneeled to lift up Sarath and his two teenage sisters and unemployed mother? Too many mornings (and nights for that matter), I’m rushing and distracted and have forgotten the one plea Sarath made of me. Not “send more money.” Not “send more gifts.” Pray for me.

“Pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints.” – Ephesians 6:18, emphasis added (NIV).

How seriously do we take prayer? I know I certainly don’t take it seriously enough. It’s the Sunday school answer to the issues we hear of plaguing the children we minister to.

How quickly and easily does the phrase, “I’ll pray for that” run off our tongues? But do we see prayer for what it is — crying out to the omnipotent God for His incomparable power to work in the lives of these children?

For we don’t just throw money at a problem. Our weapon against poverty isn’t cash. Our weapons “have divine power to demolish strongholds” (2 Corinthians 10:4, NIV).

As Eric Alexander says, “The great business of the church is prayer. And the greatest need of a needy world is a praying church.”

“In all our thinking about Christian service, prayer needs to become fundamental instead of supplemental … Prayer is the work; it is the essence of the task to which we are called, and apart from it, all other work, and I mean Christian work, is a sheer waste of time and energy divorced from the basic work of prayer. Everything else is insignificant.” – Eric Alexander

Oh my soul, when will I take prayer as seriously as I ought?

My husband and I just wrote a small group study that is all about learning about the issues in this world and responding to them in prayer. But I still fall so short in this ministry of prayer to the children we sponsor.

So tell me — what do you do to be alert and stay alert as Ephesians 6 says?

How do you keep on praying for all the saints?

What stories do you have of the power of God through prayer in your sponsored children’s lives, or your own life?

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I was reading through chapter three this morning and came across something that gave me a hope and excitement about the future that I have really been praying for. Starting in verse nine, he is recalling that during the time of Moses, the law, which was death, was considered glorious because it was from God. But now, the law has been abolished, and grace, which is life, has replaced it.

In verse ten he says,

“…What once had glory has come to have no glory because of the glory that surpasses it (emphasis mine). For if what was being brought to an end came with glory, how much more will what is permanent have glory.” (ESV)

As you know, my internship at Compassion has ended and I am still here (praise the Lord) working as a temp in hopes of being hired on full time. The internship was to me, very glorious. It was a six week period of my life filled with the realization of God’s goodness, provision, and sovereignty in ways that I had not seen or known.

While I still work here and am grateful to do so, there is a strange sense of reality and life that has suddenly set in. I have recently moved into my first apartment, am paying my own bills, and this feeling of independence that I have longed for and strived to attain is now creating in me a greater desire to be dependent again.

I think that’s the point. Not to say that everything you thought you wanted in life will disappoint, but those things that we counted as glorious will, in fact, pale in comparison to what the Lord has prepared for those who love Him. As He progressively sanctifies us and makes us more like Himself, the greatness of the former glories will dim and the places that He will take us in the future will be even more glorious.

The thing about “glories” is that they come in between waves of seeming stillness. For example, I recently applied for a waitressing position at PF Chang’s. I am one of only two people I know that loves to serve at restaurants. Since I’m new to the area, I thought it would be a great way to stay busy, meet people, and earn a little extra money. I have quite a bit of experience and felt confident that when I walked in a few weeks ago, I would be training by the end of the week.

Two weeks and four interviews later, Corporate has put the restaurant on a “hiring freeze” because September is their slowest month. Bad timing. Stillness.

I have also continued applying at Compassion for any and every position for which I qualify. The response … *crickets chirping* Silence. Stillness. And so I continue to wait.

As I am waiting, I am working on a number of different assignments. For starters, I was asked to sift through hundreds of pictures and video clips dealing with the Global Food Crisis and to come up with a creative way in which to use them to communicate the depth of the problem.

Due to some unexpected technical difficulties and unfortunate time delays, I am now about a week and half behind. More stillness.

After a great “next steps” meeting with the head of marketing, I have been asked to write a more formal and “buttoned-up” business case for the my campaign idea to quantify the benefits and cost. This is what the decision-makers will use to say “go” or “no go.” Potential stillness.

It only makes sense that there must be times of stillness, even silence, perhaps in order for there to be times of proper praise, worship, and gratitude. If we have nothing to compare our former glories to, we would begin to think of our God as small and limited. In His wisdom, He reveals to us glimpses into His splendor, satisfying us only so much as to feed the yearning and desire of our heart to want more.

So, while I work and wait, and wait and work, I feel the Spirit building up within me a hope for a future glory. My hope and prayer for you, no matter where you are or what you are doing, is that you would also come to know and feel that God is preparing to show you another measure of His glory so that you would be refreshed and satisfied. But only for a little while.

The God of the universe loves us too much to let us settle for what we can see and understand. What a greater love though, that would continue, daily, to romance us and to lead us to a secret place, filled with greater glory than we can begin to comprehend. This is our God: the romancer of our spirits and the lover of our souls. Be swept away, won’t you?

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