Name Above All Names – Jesus, Football, or something else?

Isaiah 26:8

Yes, LORD, walking in the way of your laws,
we wait for you;
your name and renown
are the desire of our hearts.

This past year has been a year of mixed feelings. I have gone through my own personal tragedies in addition to what Ayden, my nephew, has been through with his sensitive heart condition. Family members have gone through divorce. Death seems to have occurred in many different families and not always with just one person. Relationships have been lost. I just get a sense that 2010 has been a hard year for several people, including me. In a metaphorical sense, I took a punch to the stomach.

Currently I often lack the motivation to just do normal responsibilities. Thankfully I have a loving family here to encourage me to keep pressing on forward into a bright future. I was given the blessing to attend this year’s Passion 2011 conference with 22,000 college students from across the world worshipping Jesus altogether. It is something I have come to look forward to almost every year now, and I am hoping that I get to go back for a third time next year. Every hand is raised in the Phillips Arena and in the Georgia World Conference Center as Chris Tomlin rocks the words to “Our God,” “Like a Lion, “A Chosen Generation,” and some of our other favorite songs. It feels like looking into the Grand Canyon for the first time. You breath is taken away, and if you worship an almighty and powerful God, tears roll down your cheeks because you experience and see some something awe-inspiring in an united body of young believers fervently chasing after Jesus to make a difference in a sin-filled world.

In addition to the Passion conference, I received a Kiva gift certificate for a Christmas present. Kiva is an online microlending service that provides money usually to businesspeople that are looking to start up or add on to their already existing business. I believe it is a site worth exploring, and thus far I have lent four loans (two that have been repaid in full). So I have had good experiences with the site. As I browse through the site, I realize that my problems are minor compared to what the Peruvians and Bolivians are facing who are seeking microloans. They are asking for loans for things as simple as clothes, farms, and even animals for their small businesses so they can thus feed their families. It makes our lives here in American seem plush and comfortable as they often are. Sometimes we spend so much time complaining about our own situations that we did not even see the others around us. I think there are certain times when one should focus inwardly so we can later focus on others outwardly in service. In other words, I will focus on my relationship with God to strengthen it in order to later assist others in building their relationships with Christ.

Recently it has been one of those times when I have been struggling so much in my walk with God I have taken some time to focus on him alone. That does not necessarily mean I pray and read my three-four hours a day. I am just doing my best to get refocused so I can then focus on what truly matters. In a fallen world, we carry names with us everywhere: Gap, Armani, Levi, Brad Pitt, Angelina Jolie, Dell, Akon, Nelly, Adrian Peterson, Bret Favre, Michael Jordan, Lebron James, Beyonce, the University of Alabama, and even Auburn University. There has been a lot of hype over Auburn winning the national championship, which I am extremely happy to be a part of since I am now alum. Even in the midst of a down period for me, it managed to make me smile when my mom bought me a “Smack the Quack” Auburn T-shirt. In the last talk of the Passion Conference, Giglio mentioned these names along with several more in addition to it to express how much meaning our society gives to the names of worldly things. Auburn University is a name that has been given so much glory this past week. We carry these names like they are the most important things in the world. We carry them on our back and in our personalities as we let them define us instead of us defining them. All Christians have one name that should resound through the heavens: Jesus! Jesus! Jesus! We should not hold so many celebrities and brand names in such high regard. Yes, I love Auburn, and I love the success we have attained through our football national championship, but I love Jesus with all my heart. Isaiah 26:8 is the central verse that drives the Passion motto around the world stating that “your name and renown are the desire of our hearts.” My question to you is the same as it should be for me daily or any other Christian: Is Jesus the one name you cling to more so than anyone or anything else? That is the name that will get you through the hard times of 2011. Be passionate about that name because He is passionate about you.