Like most people I have several names that I answer to: Julie, Mrs. Crider, Ms Julie, JuJu, Coach, Babe, Little’n… I’ve been thinking a lot lately about how those different names and titles elicit different tones of responses. Physiologically, in your brain neurons associate with other related neurons. So a name you are called will activate all the neurons that you associate to that name like memories of past experiences or even how you view when that title should be used. And those activated neurons actually dictate the position you come from when you respond.
I’m back in school now and so I’m back to being Mrs. Crider for most of my day. When I hear ‘Mrs. Crider,’ I’m immediately put into a tone of authority: in my head, my body language, my voice’s inflection, everything. My response will come from a place that says ‘I know what’s going on’ or ‘I know the answer.’
When I hear ‘Coach’ or ‘Ms Julie,’ which is what my runners and church kids call me, I go into a kind-of mixture of authority and intimacy. Because though I still have authority with those kids, I have a relationship with them too. I know them more deeply and they know me, they’ve seen me at weak points and I’ve shared more of my heart with them. My response carries authority, but it’s going to be within the parameters of a relationship and everything that comes with that.
When I hear ‘Babe,’ ‘JuJu,’ or ‘Little’n,’ it’s straight intimacy. Mark calling me ‘Babe’ lights up more than a usual amount of neurons in my brain: all the memories of every loving moment, every flirtation, even arguments… is now active as I respond. When my sister or niece calls me ‘JuJu’, it likewise fires up certain neurons. I’m coming from a place that says we have history because that’s what she called me as a toddler and now she has passed that on to her own toddler. Sometimes in your life, you make friends with people and it’s like an immediate connection. Recently I have made one of these new friends and one day, out of nowhere, she called my JuJu. And this is when I knew for sure that she was a soul-sister-kind-a friend. Growing up and even into adulthood, sometimes my mom would call me ‘Little’n.’ But she didn’t call my sister that. And it wasn’t because I was smaller than my twin, we were twins. It was because I was the youngest, the baby, even if only by 7 minutes. A lot of twins have identity issues but I always felt like I had a special place when Mom called me that. It revealed her intimacy with me; she had a relationship with me that was separate from her relationship with my twin. When any of these intimate names are directed at me, my immediate tone of response is all love. My response will be out of the relationship we have, not some other motive. The Bible says in heaven we will be given a new name. I cannot even imagine what it will feel like when God calls me by his own special name for me.
So all that being said…wouldn’t it be the same with us addressing God? If we simply call him ‘God,’ we are asking for a response that is all authority. When we call him ‘Creator’ or ‘Redeemer,’ we speak to not only him being our authority but also we recognize that he is involved in our lives. But Jesus tells us to call him ‘Abba’ (‘Daddy’). All the names have their place… but there’s just nothing like the intimate ones… to get ‘Abba’ to respond out of the relationship. I have found that in my prayer life the type of response I get usually matches the way I approached Him. Sometimes you need ‘God’ to intervene for you and bring authoritative justice. But when I call on ‘Abba,’ I get a relational response, an outpouring of love and peace. And those are the best kind of responses.
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