WHAT'S IN A NAME?

We sat outside the clinic, watching the movement in the busy streets below. Just then my Whatsapp beeped a signal and I reached for my phone. As I read the text that just came in, I smiled. I couldn’t hold it to myself, I told my closest staff what had just come in.

A friend of mine who just completed a training had been hunting for a job. He was in dire need of a source of income and I had earlier told him that the training he had received would sustain his need if he found the people who needed his services. We had exchanged words earlier when a proposal came across his way and I had advised him not to take the job based on certain moral slackness on the part of the one offering the job. That was a little while back, this time around, he had clinched a good job.

The outfit that offered him the job was owned by a member of the assembly he attended. He was to work on graphic designs and that he knew well. However, the text that came was informing me that he had just quit the job!

My staff asked me why I was happy that he quit the job, being his only job and I gladly told him. This my friend had been asked to redesign certificates that could only be gotten from authorized bodies or organizations. He felt it was no harm since the owner of the business was also a Christian and knew what to do. But then it dawned on him that this wasn’t right and the owner of the business wasn’t his standard. He didn’t wait one more day. He sent a text to his boss saying why he couldn’t and wouldn’t continue the job.  Despite the glaring fact that he is to be married in few months’ time, he quit his only job and here I was, smiling. My staff couldn’t fathom it.

The expression on the face of my staff changed instantly and he asked why I would encourage someone to do that? He said it was unfair that I was in support of the action. He was slightly grieved as I listened to him. He went ahead to say that It wasn’t right. That I should have let him continue since it was his only job and he needed money.

I really tried to explain to him that this my friend did what was right but my staff wasn’t one to accept what he was yet to understand. He said that I always think people are like me but I should consider that they have not attained the height I have attained so I should be willing to cut them some slack especially if they are counting on my counsel and advice. I could have been speechless at the words I heard but for the fact that I knew where he was coming from. I had to settle down and educate him properly.

I told him that a man’s foundation matters a lot just like it matters in the case of a house. The foundation is the most important thing because every other thing is built on it. I told him that the height I have attained didn’t come easy and I had to go through the pains of telling him the jobs I had to let go, the contract I had to sideline despite how enticing the money was and how much in need I was at the time.

I told him that following a standard isn’t easy and raising one is even harder. I asked him if he had observed that we do not do every job that comes our way and he affirmed. I told him that there were reasons behind everything I did and encouraged them to do at the clinic. There were strategies to ensure that we do not get ensnared in seeking money and forgetting the purpose of our existence.

I explained to him that a name is far more important than success and material acquisition. I reminded him of how he was proud to come work with us and if he didn’t consider our name making a difference to him, he might have reconsidered. It slowly dawned on him that it wasn’t how much we got but what we became that really counted.

Most times it doesn’t seem to matter to us as businessmen, students, workers or professionals what people say about our conduct. We believe it’s a free world and no matter what happens, people must talk. As correct as that sounds, life is all about sticking to a standard that is right and positive. No man would accomplish anything worthwhile who has no standards.

Our standards might be moral, educational, spiritual or otherwise. What matters most is how disciplined we are to keeping them irrespective of what may try to deter us or lure us from the set focus. Sometimes my staff would gather and ask me why I haven’t taken time to teach them some things they desire to learn of me and my response is always that they are learning though it isn’t so glaring or vivid.

We once had a meeting and I had to expressly tell them that I may belong to this generation but I would do all I can to make sure that the foolishness that seems to be our lot as youths would be absent from my conduct and personal principles. I told them that understanding computers is a wonderful thing. It breeds respect and unrivaled acclaim, yet it wasn’t the prime of survival.

Money can buy experience no matter how high and costly the experience seems to be but no amount of money can purchase character and attitude. It has to be cultivated and it takes a life time to build a life that people find difficult to fault. I encouraged them to work on their personal relationships with customers, amongst themselves and those higher than they are.

I went further to tell them that I would rather be out of business than run my shop like the average ‘Igbo man’. My name is important to me and not even they would come between me and the seeds I try to daily sow to ensure that I do not mix my principles with mire.

One of the first things people do to a child which is of significance is to give a name. Names are more than just mere identities and until we understand that names speak for themselves we would never be conscious of the steps we take. Until we dig deep within our consciences to reveal our intent and how we would really want to be treated we would not understand how it hurts to slack in our principles. To build a good name is a very tedious task and to downgrade a good name can be said to be heinous.

I have this consolation however that one that builds a good name for the right motive, such a name always outlives both the name bearer, the beneficiaries and the antagonists.

I would willingly lose my life building my name for God’s kingdom just as I will be willing to lose the same one life for the NAME that saved me and I have come to trust in. The name that’s above all names.

The question is not “What’s in a name?”

The real question is “What’s not in a name?”

And your question now is “What’s in your name?”

Selah.

Philip 2:8-11 “Christ was humble. He obeyed God and even died on a cross.Then God gave Christ the highest place and honored his name above all others. So at the name of Jesus everyone will bow down, those in heaven, on earth, and under the earth.And to the glory of God the Father everyone will openly agree, "Jesus Christ is Lord!" (CEV)