Leading by Naming
Mark Labberton
April 1, 2007
Every day our naming of the people around us gives life and takes it away. Really? Really. I can still feel the impact of a highly musical friend who one day called me musical. No one had ever called me that. I didn't really play an instrument. I was no soloist. Yet what made this comment so remarkable was that I instantly felt known and loved. Why? Because I was being named in the way that always matters most: from the inside out. The musicality of my life, fundamental and invisible as it is, has to do with my soul, not with instruments. It's about my way of being in the world, not about notes being played. The sheer, unexpected grace of being named "musical" stunned me. It's not the most important thing about me, but he "got me" in a way that noticed, validated, and appreciated something deeply true about me even though it is usually missed. Being rightly named means being truly known. It changes our lives. Embedded in our words, and in our actions, are the names we give to and receive from others. Nods of recognition, glances of curiosity, looks of compassion, signs of paying attention build one another up. "Hey bud," "good job," "I noticed … " "thank you," "join us" are little names that matter. When positive words and actions combine, such naming actually makes a life. God created by naming: "Let there by light," and "let us make humankind in our image." In turn, the human beings named with unflinching instinct, "This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh." The first job God gives us is to name the creatures around us. Naming is about as primary to our being made in God's image as almost anything else we might … well, name. It carries with it our peculiar capacity for relationship, including our potential ...
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