What's with the name? (14/100)

I don't know how many other other people do this, but I named my first car. It was a Pontiac Le Mans, two-door, white with maroon top. My mom wanted to be sure I was safe so this thing was a tank. As I began driving it, I felt it needed a name. I spent the next couple of weeks driving it in conversation about the name that would fit the best. The use of a small book of baby names assisted me in my effort. I can't remember fully why I chose the name I did, except that it represented strength, heritage and power.

For me, names have always been important. A name has significance in representing a person when nothing else is known about them. This is why I hate that it is with remembering names that I most struggle. Choosing a name for a child, or in our case for an organization, has a weight of responsibility for which I was unprepared as I began following the Lord on this path of living into my calling almost two years ago.

Today I returned to considering the official name for our organization that we now affectionately refer to as the No-Name Non-Profit (or the NNNP). Although we have an increasingly detailed strategic plan, a mission statement, a vision statement, core values, and the growing details for programming, we still do not have a name.

My impatience at times with God in this matter has served to remind me that I still have much to learn about trust. However, I am grateful that in more than one context over the last three years, I have learned to sit in the stillness and deepest darkness prior to the coming of dawn. In these moments, though not seen nor felt, your presence is most known. My ability to not just trust but rest in these times of mystery and the "not-knowing" is nothing other than testimony to the grace of God at work in this control-preferring, push-ahead-no-matter-what child.

No, at the conclusion of my time today, we still do not have a name, but I sense the light of dawn approaching. I know that whatever it is will fit us in uniqueness and expression; therefore, I am convinced that when we see it (hear it) we will know that it is right.

Oh, the name of my car?

Demetrius Alexander (I am so weird.)