Your Secret Name
God speaks to Gideon. But instead of calling him Gideon, God calls him ‘O Champion’. That would get your attention. God called Mary ‘highly favored one’.
What does God call you? I wonder if God has a name for each of us that only God knows. Like Gideon, would you be a defender, a supporter, an advocate or perhaps guardian? God knows your heart. When God plans to use you, how will you respond? Remember, both Gideon and Mary responded with humility.
As a parent, I am sure you have already fulfilled some of these roles.
Looking at the human side of the gospel, Peter really nails it. “What’s in it for me?” Jesus just shared how hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of heaven and Peter wants to know what he will get. He has assumed himself already poor so what is to come must be better than that. There is nothing wrong with being rich unless riches dominate your life. If you are always desiring more, striving for more, then pride has taken its place as your god. Having a love for poverty, the poor, and a desire for living the beatitudes sets a foundation for eternal life. No human can enter heaven on their own. Only God has that power. God does not look at what you have built up here on earth but looks for the treasure you have acquired through faith and service to God. Would it not be great, at the end of life, to hear God call you by name when He says ‘good and faithful servant’?
May the Lord bless you in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen