What's in a Name?
Pardon me if I sound a bit brass, but I believe I have a point to make in this post that could change your outlook on your self-worth and even change someone else’s life forever. Hang with me as I ask you a few questions.
Question #1: Have you ever heard the name Billy Graham or how about Joyce Meyers and Beth Moore?”
“Well, of course I have,” I’m sure you are saying. “Their names have reached around the globe because of their teachings and best-selling books. How could I not have heard their name?”
Question #2: Have you ever heard the name Tychius?
Aha, I bet I got’cha on that one, or maybe I am judging you by my own lack of knowledge of him; that is until I met him on the morning of December 28, 2013, while sitting in a motel lobby in Austin, Texas miles away from home. Our chance meeting happened like this:
I was about to close my Bible after having finished my daily reading, and there he was in Colossians 4:7 blaring out at me for the first time. “All my affairs shall Tychicus declare unto you, who is a beloved brother, and a faithful servant in the Lord.”
Tychicus – “Who in the world is he?” I wondered. “I have tried to read the Bible through each year for many years, and quite honestly, I had never met Tychicus on the pages of God’s Holy Word. Yet this morning, his name was seemingly beckoning me right in the motel lobby to get to know him better. So, I did a little research, and I discovered that:
It was Tychius who hand carried Paul’s letter to the Colossians over 800 miles to its destination, and then it moved from church to church and was repeatedly copied.
Call me “blonde,” but I had never given it a second thought that all those letters Paul wrote in prison had to get out of his prison cell to the group intended somehow. After all, there was no email, facebook, or twitter, or even postal service at that time!”
A chilling thought swept over me.
- What if Tychicus had thought delivering Paul’s letter was unimportant?
- What if he had wanted a bigger more impressive job to prove to everyone how much he loved the Lord? Hand delivering a letter? Really? An errand boy job! How menial a task is that!
I shuddered when I thought more about Tychicus’s task. Had Tychicus been judging his service to the Lord as unimportant or insignificant I, a modern day believer, might not have ever come across the scripture that gave me the light bulb moment I needed when arguing with God about forgiving others: Forbearing one another, and forgiving one another, if any man have a quarrel against any: even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye.” (Colossians 3:13)
Oh, do I ever remember that day - as Christ had forgiven me - was the reason I was to pass forgiveness on to others! Thank you, Tychicus, for hand-carrying Paul’s letter out of that prison cell 800 miles away. Without knowing it, you were instrumental in getting me out of my own prison cell.
Question #3: What’s in a name? Well, quite honestly, a more accurate question would be “what’s inside you?” Have you been resisting what God is asking you to do because you feel it is insignificant and not important? If so, as 2014 begins, I challenge you to a new way of thinking: "Allow your love for God motivate you to be obedient to do anything He asks, no matter how insignificant or unnoticeable it may seem."
Who knows? Someday, someone may walk up to you in a motel lobby and say, “So glad to at last meet you. Your service to the Lord changed my life.”