Nicknames Don't Stick

“Forasmuch as an excellent spirit, and knowledge, and understanding, interpreting of dreams, and shewing of hard sentences, and dissolving of doubts, were found in the same Daniel, whom the king named Belteshazzar: now let Daniel be called, and he will shew the interpretation.” (Da 5:12 AV)

It is interesting that as hard as Babylon tried, they could never get Daniel’s pagan name to stick.  This verse occurs decades after Daniel was renamed and three kings later.  Over the years, Daniel proved the true God to be the only God and the gods of Babylon to be false ones.  God used Daniel to interpret dreams and guide kings.  He never rebelled.  He served with humility and honesty.  When push came to shove, the LORD Jehovah showed Himself to be the only Almighty God, and Nebby made a declaration to that effect.  Just because the lost world wants to redefine you, doesn’t mean they will be successful.  The more faithful we are to the LORD and the more we yield to His service, the less impact the world will have on defining who and what we are.

When I was a child, I was picked on a lot.  With the bullying came plenty of nicknames. None of them were flattering.  Lest I hear them again, I will refrain from sharing them with the world at large.  Needless to say, as a kid, it was difficult to overcome.  Those who tortured me did so mercilessly.  There was no quarter.  From the minute I stepped foot on the schoolyard, until the time I walked home, I heard these cruel names over and again.  I was invited to a birthday party for one of the popular kids in school only because his mother made him ask everyone in his class.  Otherwise, wouldn’t have gotten an invite.  When I came, present in hand, the scoffing started all over again.  I wasn’t even safe at a party for someone else with a gift in hand.  This went on for most of my school career.  Only when I switched schools, and then communities, did I escape the nicknames.  A change of venue gave me a clean slate.  The school from which I graduated actually saw me befriend and help the popular kids in school with classwork which they found difficult.  I became quite popular in computer science class, physics, English, and math.  During the first period, which most Seniors had open, I was in the cafeteria with a donut and coffee helping the popular kids with their labs.  What I did out-lived the nicknames.

What you do for God will far exceed all the names and ideas people have about you.  That is if you and I remain faithful and allow God to use us.  This promise is not for the half-hearted.  For one to shed the impression others have of you, the more dramatic ways in which the LORD uses you, the more likely that is to happen.  If we are only half-committed, the opinions of others may stick.  When they see us unwaveringly attending church, giving, praying, reading our Bibles, and soul-winning, it is hard to make a label of compromise to stick.  In my senior year of High School, I often spent that first period reading my Bible.  This was in a public school.  That alone shed the ‘new kid’ syndrome that I thought was coming.  For the most part, my classmates thought it was cool that I had enough courage to read my Bible in front of an administration that criticized it.  Stay faithful to God and the names the world uses to defame you will be a thing of the past.  As hard as they might try, character, consistency, and faith are hard to criticize.