What's Your Vision? & Your Name Means Something!

Psalm 46:10 "Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth."

I’m reading a book titled Memphis Memoirs by Paul R. Coppock. In this book he has researched the history of many of the people that this area has its names. Reading about the man for whom Shelby County is named after, I was impressed by everything this man did, not just for Shelby County and the State of Tennessee but what he did for our young country back in the early 1800s. My reading states that “Nine states have counties named for (Isaac) Shelby and seven have Shelbyvilles….”

And it was with the purchase of land that a “young lawyer in the new town of Nashville” bought that Memphis was a town that became a reality. The young lawyer’s name was John Overton. “Overton foresaw a metropolis in some hazy future when the Indian title had been cleared away, when the Tennessee country had become a state, and when the people who had been trickling over the mountains sent back word of the rich lands of the West. It was twenty-five years after Overton’s purchase when surveyors laid off streets and parks for the town of Memphis, Town government was formed by election of seven aldermen on 26 April 1827, which was thirty-three years after the purchase, with only a few settlers willing and able to pay as much as $100 for a Main Street lot. But the metropolis came true and today the Overton acres are the portion of Memphis roughly between Union and Vollintine, from the river to East Parkway.”

So I shared these 2 paragraphs of information to ask 2 questions. First, look up your name and find its meaning, what does your name mean? Names stand for something, including last names. I’ve studied the meanings, origins, and possible reasons for the names I’ve been given. More on this later, the second question is related to the piece I shared about John Overton. The ’founding father’ of Memphis, Tennessee. What do you vision for the future? Do you have a vision for anything? Maybe you should find one, even if it seems small and insignificant. I’ve always lived my life with grandeur dreams, I’ve been told it has to do with my bipolar disorder but I beg to differ. I was raised being told I could do anything I wanted to do with enough effort. I was also raised being told I could be anyone I wanted to be if that is what I really wanted to do. So when I told my father at 14 I wanted to be a foreign missionary I’m sure he was taken back by such a humbling occupation since I had big dreams of being something grand. Grand in my opinion is in the eyes of the beholder. I think being a missionary in a foreign country is grand. May not afford me a nice expensive sports car but I really could care less. And who needs a sports car if you’re in a country that a sports car’s gas bill for the week could feed a family of 5 or 6 for the month! We really sometimes need to figure out why we want what we want. Is it a selfish motive or does your desires truly help mankind out for the better?

There is nothing wrong with owning a sports car, an expensive home, and to vacation in a great spot every year as long as you are being a proper steward of the money God has entrusted to you. He requires one tenth of our income, tithing. Do you do that? He also asks for us to give above and beyond our tithe in offerings. Do you do that? Recently I’ve felt pretty guilty by my pastor at LHBC preaching about giving to our building fund. Well the sermon was about the “Greed Scheme” and Pastor Carr was rather asking us were we rich toward God. Where we interested in Kingdom things. Interested in what God was interested in. He reminded us of the Proverb that “where you’re mind is, is where your heart will be”. He continued in this sermon by asking, “Are you investing in people? This world system says, ’it’s all about me, isn’t it?’” And he pointed out that “greed isn’t how you ’FEEL’, it’s what you do.” The prayer I have for myself every day since this sermon has been, “Lord help me be rich toward You every day.” Are you living your life this way? Are you spending the money that has been trusted to you with this attitude of being rich toward God?

My first name Billie means “resolute guardian or protector”. Jean means “God is gracious” and my last name Wood means “from the woods”. I find my first name’s meaning very intriguing. I want to know what I’m a guardian or protector of, I’m still seeking God to find out what I’m a resolute protector of. And my middle name is very true, my Lord has been very gracious toward me in every way. And my last name makes sense, my dad use to not shave his beard and he would look like a grizzly bear from the woods. I had about 3 or 4 class mates (males no doubt) who use to call my dad, “Grizzly Adams”. You had to be there to know how hilarious it was when he would come to get me for orthodontic appointments. One of my friends was artistic and he drew a picture of my dad with his embarrassingly hideous car, 1979 Ford Pinto station wagon. Many of my friends remember this car, oh at 13 and 14 years of age this car embarrassed me to death! Looking back on this time in my life I remember that my dad may not have had a great looking car but he loved me and my brother with lots of love. He gave us what he had and he tried really hard to give us more than what we needed. So no matter if you have everything you want or desire to have just one or two of the items from your want list, just always remember that if you have love in your life you have everything you need and your wants stem from the desire to have that love in your life. Think about that. Love covers a multitude of sin but it also fills the desires of our hearts.