Beloved — What is in a name?
We were called long ago by a new name. The name the Majesty draped us in was Love’s own word: Beloved.
We inscribed it upon our abdomen as reminder before we were old enough or wise enough to afford better. We did so as testimony to the vessel and the Soul both, as reminder of the held promise.
We hold this promise and truth as sacred and solemn: We are Beloved. Called such as reminder and witness both. A promise spoken so long ago that the vessel need not believe in itself, for the One who formed it believes enough for the both of us.
When we heard it first, it was whispered through music and pop culture, like that loveless manga so long ago. We heard it in songs as we mutilated our flesh because our internal self was shriveled and deadened, and we wanted others to see and reach out in love.
We heard it sung through Lauren Daigle in “You Say.” That lyric became an anthem reminding the inner being in times of trial and testing. We began to distrust our own mind’s perception and ability to name a thing truly, until we reached a shocking conclusion: we did not need to label or categorize ourselves. We simply needed to listen to what He says we are.
He told us long ago, and in many ways, that our name is Beloved.
We have since tattooed it in scrollwork on our chest, our left driving hand, and more if finances permit.
Why do we do this? Because we are fools who need constant reminders that cannot be washed off. We need to see, as we drive for Lyft, that we are Beloved. And a secret: in our death, if a body is left behind, it too shall bear witness in death to the eternal Name.
We have believed what He has called us and have learned to be brutal with our own mind — silencing it with the brutality reserved for murderers and perverts. Why? Because we choose the pathway of thought, shaping how our mind responds to harmful impulses through active mindfulness and purposeful yieldedness.
We yield in all ways to the One who surpasses us without erasing us — instead embracing and integrating in perfection. We choose what we will be and name ourselves as He names us. We call ourselves Dust as writer so that all glory is reflected to Him who shaped dust, gave it life, and then called this soul Beloved.
So what is in a name, Beloveds?
Yes, I call you that by Name because I see you — even if you have not yet seen yourselves.
The Name is what we grow into, what we adopt as hope, what we cling to when life becomes burden and the world whispers hate from every angle.
We can choose to be a thing or not a thing. Beloved is what we believe, what we receive, and what we offer to all who come to read and learn from us. We are named Beloved, joyfully so, even in sorrow.
The Name has substance when coupled with belief in the One who named us.
We believe — and therefore all actions and interactions become gateways to proving the reality of His truth spoken over us before creation.
We have learned that the Name begins when accepted as gift, not burden.
So what is in a name? Everything and nothing, Beloveds.
The names we give ourselves — failure, weak, helpless, coward — they hold power only when we place belief behind their message. Conversely, we have the power to withdraw belief through active work and the choice not to accept the lies of our subconscious and environmental programming. We bring all such lies to the Father and admit our failings of self-image.
We must distrust internal programming and adopt a higher language — the language of Heaven.
His voice names us all Beloved if we are born of Him.
We are born of Him when we adopt His mantle and Name as identity and substance, superseding the fractured individual identity. And yet, we lose none of what makes us unique, for the Father delights in the absurd and the mundane being made miraculous.
Names are choices adopted. Republican? Democrat? Gay? Straight? Boy? Girl?
I suggest a greater adoption — ridiculous in its audacity:
Let us all adopt the Name Beloved before God and be one as He is One.
As always, take what feels true to you, Beloveds.