What's in a name?

In our house we have something called a "Marvin moment" - those of you familiar with Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy will be chuckling - Marvin is the depressed android who casually sees the dark side of everything - but the turns out to be fiercely loyal to his human friends for all his complaining.

This ability to turn everything to its darkest side is the Marvin moment - whenever my nearly-teen gets stuck in that rut of everything being just too horrid to bear (and I know I would not want to be twelve again) - if things are really not that bad and this is a bit of a pity party I will crank up with "Oh Marvin...." in a deep whiny voice - the code in our family for - stop complaining - it is not that bad and you are starting to sound like that movie character!!

Naomi arrives and asks them to call her Mara - now this is not truly a Marvin moment - she does have plenty to genuinely complain about but what made me think of Marvin was how her request might have felt to Ruth who has just given up everything for her. Ruth is a blessing to her but Naomi takes the negative path and chooses to dwell in her sorrow.

In the internet age we all have the ability to choose many names. I can, right now, sign up for accounts on chat boards and blogs all over the world and put in any screen name I choose - I can hide my real identity - if I know what I am doing I can even lose myself in cybersspace. I was thinking about the names I have online - the names which were not given to me but which I have assigned myself.

I have four main email accounts - two are versions of my name, one was born of frustration and taken from the cover of a pack of CD cases sitting next to me and then this one - holybrit - who I am - at least my nationality and something I aspire to be a little more each day.

So perhaps think about it this way - for fun, for an exercise, come up with a new email or screen name for yourself today - what is in your name, how is God holding your life? I hope that not too many folks will find themselves in a Marvin moment......then the tough bit but I am assuming folks are doing this - get that Lent Rule written down and ready to go!