In this solo devotional episode of the Voices in My Head podcast, host Rick Lee James reflects on the power of names and labels. He opens with standard podcast introductions and a call for listener support via Patreon, iTunes reviews, and his website. The core of the episode draws on Rabbi David Wolpe’s book Making Loss Matter, highlighting how assigning numbers or labels can dehumanize people—citing examples from Les Misérables and Holocaust concentration camps. James then turns to the biblical fascination with names, tracing how Adam, Eve, Abram→Abraham, Sarai→Sarah, Jacob→Israel, and Simon→Peter each receive new names that signify identity and purpose. He shares a personal anecdote about his wife’s battle with cancer, her transition from the name Eileen to Elena (a Hebrew name meaning “God has answered”), and how that name change symbolized a new self. The episode culminates with a reading of Revelation 2:17, which promises a “white stone” bearing a new, secret name given by God, and an invitation for listeners to consider the new name God may be giving them. James closes with promotional reminders (website, music, book signings) and a benediction invoking hope and the Holy Spirit.
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Welcome to Voices in My Head, the official podcast of me, Rick Lee James. I'm a recording artist, a singer, a songwriter, an author, a worship leader, and an ordained minister in the Church of the Nazarene. The Voices in My Head podcast is where I discuss music, movies, books, pop culture, theology, and more with friends, colleagues, and sometimes just by myself. Now make sure to let me know what you think of today's episode by leaving me a review on iTunes or by tweeting at me @RickLeeJames on Twitter. And please join my mailing list at RickLeeJames.com where you can receive an email every time a new episode is released. By the way, in case you're interested in a daily dose of kindness and encouragement beyond this podcast, I also run the Twitter account @MrRogersSay where I post daily quotes from Fred Rogers, one of the voices in my head. Well, I guess that's it for the intro, so sit back, relax, and listen to the latest episode of Voices in My Head.
Hey, welcome back to Voices in My Head. As always, I'm your host, Rick Lee James. Rick Lee James, and I thank you for being here with me this week. Just me this week, no guest, but I, I almost feel like the guest this week is Rabbi David Wolpe because I'm going to be using some of the things that he wrote about in Making Loss Matter: Creating Meaning in Difficult Times. More of that in just a moment, but I do want to let you know as we begin today, if you are interested in helping out this podcast or me and my music and ministry and the things that I do, you can do that by going to patreon.com/rickleejames. You can give as little as a dollar a month, but I have to tell you, when those podcast bills come due every year, and they just came due recently, it always helps to have a little support in that way. And if you're a person that feels like, hey, I could give a dollar a month to help Rick out, in, in both this podcast but also the other podcast that I host, Welcome to the Neighborhood, the Mr. Rogers tribute podcast. And it goes towards the podcast, also occasionally things that have to do with music and things like that. Not a lot of money comes back in from those endeavors that I do, but I just wanted to remind you, patreon.com/RickLeeJames, if you did want to support the show at all. And I always appreciate that, and it's It's great to have you along on the journey. The podcast is free. It'll always be free. But I just wanted to let those of you know who might be able to help out that we could always use your help around here. So tonight, this is sort of my trial devotional for this evening. I'm about to lead a praise team practice here at my socially distanced church. We're still meeting on Sunday morning and still doing a parking lot AM radio service and broadcasting online. We're doing our best to meet all the state requirements and keep everybody safe when we do that. And each week we come together for practice, and I try to have a devotional ready. And this is something that has really been speaking to me today, a matter of labels, names that we give to each other. We may not think a lot about the names we give to each other, but there are names that instantly make you have an image come to your mind.. It can be a good image, it can be a bad image. I guess what's on my mind right now, because we're once again in the middle of another presidential campaign season, and it just seems like that's all we hear about. What do you think of when you hear the word Republican? Or what do you think of when you hear the word Democrat? Maybe there's less association, but a word like an independent. Or if you think of labels that we put on each other, if you think of a movement like Black Lives Matter, images come to your mind, don't they? Or on the other hand, if you think of the image of Blue Lives Matter, or different images that come to mind with different labels with different names: conservative, liberal, progressive. Well, it turns out that names actually mean a lot, and as I've been reading this book, Making Loss Matter by Rabbi David Wolpe, creating meaning in difficult times, I have been slowly reading it, and every time I read it, it just seems to feed my soul. Sometimes it convicts me, Rick Lee James. It is a book that I think might be out of print now. It was published in 1999. I was hoping to find an e-copy of it, but I just have the hardback, and I am so glad I have it. I want to read a little bit of what he says and just maybe add some thoughts to that. He is talking about the idea of how we rob each other, and we use things like numbers and labels to dehumanize. Each other. And he says this, he says, "The assigning of numbers to human beings is deliberately intended to strip them of their individual selves. The prisoner Jean Valjean in Les Misérables comes to think of himself as 24601." And many of us have seen that musical, some of us have even read the book. Well, back to what Rabbi Wolpe says, "The guards at the concentration camps during the Holocaust tattooed numbers on inmates' arms to convince them that they were not unique souls, but a collection of numbers parading as selves. By shaving the prisoners' heads, forcing them to wear identical uniforms, and seeking to make everyone appear the same, they stripped the inmates of their selfhood." The only uniqueness the victims were allowed was the assigned number. And he goes on to say, the Bible is preoccupied with the question of names. Adam's name comes from Adama, the earth, because he is formed from the ground. He then names the animals, thereby asserting his difference from them and mastery over them. Adam's name signifies his origin. Dust. Eve's name in Hebrew, Havah, signifies her as the begetter of life. So the original human beings tell us that what we are called is an integral part of who we are. And the Bible's fascination with names does not end there. Many of the most important characters mark shifts in their lives by changing their names. Abram becomes Abraham. Sarai becomes Sarah. As each character begins to realize his or her full self, each assumes a new name. Now I want to skip a little bit in his writing because he writes quite a bit in his book about the cancer diagnosis that his wife had received just after their first child was born, and all that they went through, and the way that the cancer changed her and changed them. And it wasn't all for the worst. And I wanted to share a little bit about what he said about her and her new name. He says, "When my wife got her cancer, her diagnosis of cancer, she began to think about her name. Her given name was Eileen, yet Eileen is the one who got sick. Eileen is the one who did not know the lessons of sickness, because her life was lived before the cancer." which changed her into someone new. There is an old Jewish tradition of changing one's luck by changing one's name. She took her Hebrew name instead. From Eileen, she became Elena. At first, the switch was difficult. When you have known someone with one name, the name has worn grooves in your tongue. It is hard for any other name to come out when you call the person. But in time, both the person and the name begin to shift. Now it is Elena, not Eileen, whom I married, who is the mother of our daughter, who fought cancer and guards against its recurrence. Eileen is the name she was given. Elena is the name she earned, the name that is truly hers. Elena means God has answered. And I thought that was so powerful to think about that, that she decided to go to the roots of her name and go to the Hebrew, that God has answered. And I was thinking about the names that we give each other, and could it be that if we were to look past the names that we think of, those words I said at the beginning, we might be able to recapture the humanity of the people themselves. And maybe we could stop looking at enemies as enemies and see them as brothers or sisters whom we've forgotten how to love, or maybe they've forgotten how to love us. And I was thinking about the new name that God gives us, and it's in Revelation chapter 2, verse Actually, it starts really just verse 17. I wanted to share with you. It says, "Let anyone who has an ear listen to what the Spirit is saying to the churches. To everyone who conquers, I will give some of the hidden manna, and I will give a white stone, and on the white stone is written a new name that no one knows except the one who receives it." I wonder this week who we associate ourselves with, and I wonder at the same time, do we realize that we are given a new name by a God who loves us so much that he calls us forth? And we have numerous places in Scripture where people are given a new name. Just look up the name Israel. Follow around Jacob in Genesis for a while and see his journey and see why his new name, his significance. That God will give us a new name, and it's part of the struggle that we are to live into that. Peter was given the name Peter from Simon, because Peter means rock. And Jesus says, "On this rock," Petros, or Petra, I will build my church. Think about what new name God is giving to you. Forgiven. Loved. You're one who has been given mercy. One who is full of grace. Maybe you don't feel like those things, but I think we need to look beyond the names that the world places on us, and maybe the names that we place upon ourselves sometimes and try to associate ourselves with, to ask the question, what name is God giving to us? What enduring name is he calling us to have? And so with that, I'm going to be ending the podcast this evening. I thank you for listening to Voices in My Head, and I hope that Tonight, that one of the voices in your head will be the Lord who gives us a new name. I pray that that new name would be something that is life-changing and transformative, that God will use it in your life greatly in the coming days. So again, thank you for listening to Voices in My Head. We'll be back next week. God bless you.
Thank you for joining me here this week on Voices in My Head. I hope you'll visit me on my website at rickleejames.com. Where you can find out more about me, get my music on vinyl and CD, follow my blog, and even schedule me for your concert or speaking engagement. Better yet, even a book signing in your neighborhood. You can find all that and more at rickleejames.com. Also, it would mean a great deal to me if you could write a review of this podcast on iTunes. The more positive reviews that we receive, the more visible this this podcast will be online. And now for the benediction: May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope. God bless you, and thank you for listening to Voices in My Head.
