Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Foreign.
[00:00:09] Welcome to another edition of the weekday podcast. It's a fresh week around here, and I'm so grateful you're with us today. My hope is that these couple minutes would offer encouragement as we launch into the day. Now, I want to start by asking you something, and I want you to sit with it for a second before you answer. Is there a name that somebody gave you? Maybe it was years ago that you never quite got rid of. Not a nickname you chose, not something you'd put on a name tag. But what I'm talking about is the kind of name that lands in the back of your mind and it just stays there like too much or not enough or damaged goods, a failure you're behind.
[00:00:44] Maybe it came from a parent, maybe a coach. Maybe it was a moment in middle school that lasted five seconds, but somehow it stretched into five decades. And that's not a small thing because, as you know, words carry weight. And some of the words spoken over us or at us have been shaping how we see ourselves ever since. And so here's what I want you to know about today. That's not a new problem.
[00:01:05] 3,000 years ago, there's a young man named Daniel who ran head first into the same battle. And his story, tucked in the first chapter of the book that is named after him, has something to say to every single one of us who ever let someone else's label do too much damage. It Daniel 1, verse 6. It says this now, among them were the sons of Judah, were Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah. Then the commander of the officials assigned them new names. And to Daniel, he assigned the name Belshazzar. To Hananiah Shadrach, to Mishael Meshach, and to Azariah Abednego.
[00:01:40] And just like that, they're in a new country with a new language, with new food, new school. And the very first thing that Babylon does before it even starts, it takes away their names. Now, what I want to say is that this wasn't random. This is actually a strategy. And the reason I think Daniel's name and that story matters for a Monday or Tuesday or whatever day you're catching up on this is because Babylon didn't disappear 3,000 years ago. It just got a new name. There are still voices out there that are working very, very hard to tell you who you are. And some of them have been at it a long time.
[00:02:13] So this week, we're going to spend these episodes of the weekday podcast talking about what it looks like to know whose name is actually on you and what it actually looks like to live like it. And the first thing I want you to carry into your day is this idea that the names that stick are the ones we stop questioning. That's it. It's simple. The names that stick are the ones we stop questioning. At some point, most of us stopped asking whether the name was actually true, and we just started living inside of it. We stopped arguing with it. We just believed it. And once the name goes unquestioned for long enough, it starts to feel permanent. It starts to feel like the truth. But what if it isn't? What if the name that you've been carrying the longest isn't the most accurate one? What if someone got there first, before the nickname, before the failure, before the thing that left a mark and spoken name over you that is truer than all of it. That's where we're going this week. So today, check. Just do this. Think about the name you've been carrying. Don't rush past it. Don't manage it. Just notice and we'll talk about where it came from tomorrow. The names that stick, they're the ones we stop questioning. Have a great day.
