Who are YOU?

When Jacob was born, he may have gone through a bit of an identity crisis. You see, he was named William Jacob Baerg, Jr., after his dad. We planned all along to call him Jacob which also happens to be his grandfather’s first name.

The first time I noticed this might be a problem was when I went to Walgreens to pick up a prescription for my baby. They said all they had for Jacob Baerg was an order for cataract eye drops. I rolled down the back window so they could see (little) Jacob and said…“he doesn’t have cataracts, he’s a baby.” I switched the name on his prescription to William, but they didn’t add the junior and so then they wanted to know if it was for Bill. AUGH!

And I remember one time Savannah asking Bill…“Daddy, what is that other name besides Bill that you call yourself?” He told her “William” and she said .. “I don’t get it.”

In an apparent attempt to keep her little brother from suffering the same name confusion as her dad, she called Jacob his entire name….William Jacob Baerg, JUNIOR…every time she talked to him during the first few weeks of his life.

I’m surprised the poor little guy didn’t have an identity crisis as Brittany called him “William”, Caroline called him “Jacob” and Savannah was always there with the “William Jacob Baerg, Jr.”

He’s up to speed now on who he is and what his name is vs. what he is actually called. He thinks it’s pretty cool to share a name with his dad and granddad.

Walgreens is still confused.

I was reminded of this story the other day when I was reading in John 1 about the apostle John meeting with the Jewish preists and Levites. They asked him… “who are you?

And he said, “I am not the Christ.”

“Then are you Elijah?”

“Not him either.”

“Are you a prophet?”

“Nope.”

And verse 22 says: “FINALLY they said, WHO ARE YOU!?! Give us an answer to take back to those who sent us. What do you call yourself?” (I think they were getting frustrated.)

And John said… “I am the voice of the one calling in the desert, Make straight the way for the Lord.”

He had an answer! He knew who he was!

He went on in a later verse to say… “I am the one who was sent…”

And best of all…every single time it says… “he went on to testify”.

He testified about who God was and what He had done. He had personal examples. He wasn’t all talk, he had some stories (testimony) to back up his faith.

And so this is my question for us…

Who are we? What has He called us to do? What has He done in our lives?

I always tell my communication students that a speech is made so much better when it has a story to go along with the point.

And the same is true for us!

If we are going to testify about our faith in Christ…well, I just think it helps to have some stories to back it up.

Stories of what Christ has done in us or through us or for us or even what we have seen Him do through others.

Because a testimony too is so much better with a story.

Over the next few days I want to share some of my stories with you. I hope you have your own and I would LOVE it if you would share them with me.

I’m all ears.