Cari Willis - North Carolina Journal for Women

What is Your Name?

What is your name? When someone wants to get to know us, they ask the simple question “what is your name?” Our name identifies us. When someone asks our name they are saying they value us. This question says “I do not want to just pass you by and not know who you are—I want to really know you.” The question is personal. And then when we offer our name to another, we walk into a relationship with them.

From the very beginning of creation, God cared about naming things. Today, my pastor reminded all of us that God asked Adam to start naming all of creation before God had even made Eve for Adam. Each creature was unique and so deserved its own unique name. This is true even today when a new baby is born. We want to name the baby right away. We expect that the name of the child has already been hashed out between the parents and so even before the baby’s birth we want to know its name. So, names from the beginning have been an essential part of our being.

We find this question, “what is your name?” asked in both the Old Testament and New Testament. It is first seen in Genesis 32:27. Jacob has been wrestling with God all night long and is insisting on God blessing him before he lets go of God. This spunky little Jacob, who is seemingly winning the wrestling match with God, says, in essence, “no way will I let go until I get some kind of blessing for staying up all night wrestling you.” I can see God with a laugh and a wink in His eye asking “what is your name?” Jacob gives his name only then to be renamed “Israel” which means “Prince of God. May God reign.”

And then this question “what is your name?” is seen again in Mark 5:9 when Jesus asks the demon-possessed man what his name is after he casts the demons out of him. Jesus restores him. This man has been wrestling with demons, and yet Jesus wants to know his name. The man replies that his name is Legion, “for we are many,” meaning he had many demons within his body. This man lived in a cave—the townsmen tried to chain him down because of his wild behavior but that didn’t work—and night after night he would cut himself with stones. And yet when Jesus heals him and asks him his name, he becomes transformed by God’s grace. Legion wants to go with Jesus, but Jesus tells him to go be a witness of God’s mercy.

God is looking to be our personal God whether we are wrestling with God or with the demons in our life. He still longs to know our name. I am working now as one who gives pastoral care. When I introduced myself to one of my folks I introduced myself as Chaplain Willis. He looked at me with a completely perplexed face and asked, “Now, why are you going by Chaplain Willis?” (Now mind you this is within the first 5 seconds of us meeting.) He went further on to assert, “you don’t even like the title chaplain—do you?” I stood there, stunned, for a minute or two, and I said simply “if the truth be known, I don’t like the title Chaplain.” He quickly replied “Yep, you like being called pastor, so pastor it is. So hi Pastor Willis.” I know I must have kept staring at this man because indeed pastor is my favorite title. How he immediately could see into my mind and heart is beyond me. But it was important for him from the very beginning of our time together that he got my name right.

What is your name? How do you want to be identified? Will we allow God to rename us? Will we allow God to transform us? God wants to be our personal God who knows our name—who looks into our innermost being and knows our true name.

Cari is currently at Duke Divinity in order to achieve her Masters of Divinity. She is also a part-time hospice volunteer. Prior to school, Cari took a year to volunteer full-time. Before that she was the VP of Employee Services e-business group with Fidelity for 2 years. She also worked at IBM for over 18 years in many roles from Human Factors Engineering to middle management in Human Resources (HR). Cari used to speak at numerous HR conferences about how to transform HR operations. She also led the Women’s Diversity Network Group at both IBM and Fidelity. Cari graduated from the University of Arkansas with a degree in psychology. She loves to hear from you - her e-mail is williscj@aol.com.