Say my name

While meeting with people from the different ministry sites my organization is partnering with during the summer, I heard a heart-breaking story today about a man who was homeless and had not been called by name for three weeks.

Three weeks.

I am particularly jolted by this story because I thought I knew how it felt to be passed over, unappreciated, and forgotten. Perhaps it is the feeling when everyone was recognized for their gifts and people forgot to mention yours, maybe you met someone and then were not remembered upon a second meeting, maybe these are silly things, but when added together they can impact a person deeply. Picture on the opposite side the feeling when you walk into a room and someone loudly calls out your name, announcing your presence and the joy that the room feels that you have finally arrived. Picture your smile as you are embraced by friends, family, maybe even a special someone, and you know that you are wanted. These people know you, love you, and call out to you by your name.

But after I heard that story, I started picturing something entirely different.

Now picture living life where nobody intentionally called you by name for three weeks. Sure, you have been spoken to, but it was not to you but instead it was at you.
You have been told to move along from a place you were sleeping. You were told which line to get in to get food at the soup kitchen. You received eye contact from a passerby but then ignored without a hello as the person passed you by on the street.
You live among people, but without the recognition that comes with a name. Now imagine how difficult life will be, apart from the food, living, and job problems you might be facing. Life is bleak when it is lived in obscurity.

This may be such a small point to make, but I often begin to despair when I realize how difficult real change is and I like to focus on little things. Jesus has called us by name, knowing full-well who we are. Can we be sensitive to others in the same way, calling people by name, whether they are poor or wealthy, as the precious people in God's sight that they are? Let us not forget those who are silent and strive to love people by name and for who they are, as individuals created by a loving and deliberate God.