A boy named God

A friend of mine teaches English in a non-English-speaking country...

As students enter the program, they are asked to select an English name, which will be their name for the duration of their stay in the program... and the students can choose whatever name they desire, and choose how to spell it.

Currently my friend has an unintentional jungle theme going on in her class... several of the students have elected to name themselves "Tiger" or "Bear" or "Lion"... She also has a student named "Rick" who has elected to spell it "Rikk" because he thinks it's cooler that way... and we thought Americans gave their kids strange names... just imagine what could happen if the kids were to name themselves!

But the name that struck me the most, was the student who elected to name himself "God."

No, not a joke. This is actually his English name, and has been for the last three to four years...

"God, would you please come up to the board to diagram this sentence?"
"God, do you know what the answer is?"
"God, did you do your homework?"

... ah the possibilities are endless! It's a good thing I'm not his teacher...

But friends, here's the take-home...

When we detach the name "God" from an understanding of who God is... what He's done in the past, what He's doing in the present, what He says He will do in the future... His power, His authority, His glory... His desire to be known... when we divorce His name from His identity and character, then it ceases to be anything except a name... and for this little boy, that is all that it is...

So, the question for you and me is... when we say that we believe in God, do we knowingly worship "I Am" or are we merely giving lip-service to a name which means very little to us? Are we worshiping the Lord, at whose name"every knee shall bow and every tongue confess" or are we merely reciting the title of an unknown being?

Who is your God?

*caveat* I am not at all saying that we should be flippant with the name of the Lord. But the reason that we're not flippant is because we know who He is...