Called By Name
Several years back I emceed a concert featuring an artist who at one time was the biggest, most well-known artist in contemporary Christian music. Over the years, I had emceed probably close to a dozen of her concerts, interviewed her countless times, run into her at industry events and even had dinner at her home, along with a handful of other radio guys.
Yet, she interacted with hundreds of radio guys like me every year, so I wasn’t sure she would remember me. Shortly before the concert, I was out in the lobby, greeting people when someone called my name. I turned and saw it was she, the artist performing that night. She gave me a big hug and asked how my kids were, calling them by name.
“Wow,” I thought, “she does remember me.” It felt good, being remembered, known by an artist of her stature.
Fast forward ten years or so. It was a Friday afternoon and all day it felt like I had something stuck in my throat. I could barely swallow, so I called the doctor. They couldn’t see me until Monday. It got to the point that I couldn’t eat anything thicker than chicken broth. Longest weekend of my life.
By Sunday afternoon, my mind was racing with worst-case scenarios. I talk for a living, what will I do if this is serious, how will I provide for my family. Then it hit. A full-blown panic attack. I couldn’t sit still. I jumped out of my chair, “I have to take a walk,” I said to my wife Teri and headed out the door. A half hour later, I was back but no better. “You have to get your mind off of this,” Teri said. So I opened the Bible app on my phone and looked for verses I had highlighted.
The first verse I came to I had highlighted while watching “A Christmas Carol.” One of the Cratchit children was reading from Psalms and I had looked up the reference, Psalm 91:5, “You will not be afraid of the terror by night, or of the arrow that flies by day.” That started to take the edge off and I searched for more verses that dealt with fear.
It wasn’t long before I returned to something approaching a normal state of mind and was able to get some sleep.
Fear is an insidious thing, complex and powerful. And Christians are not immune. Over the past months I’ve noticed a growing number of prayer requests we receive at The JOY FM that deal with fear, anxiety, worry and uncertainty. God knows our propensity to fear. I think that’s why there are so many places in the Bible that deal with it.
I haven’t had another panic attack since that first one, but there have been times when I’ve felt one brewing just below the surface. So I continue to highlight and read those verses that promise God is greater than our fears.
I found another verse recently that reminded me of that concert and how that artist remembered my name and how nice that made me feel. Isaiah 43:1 reads, “But now, thus says the Lord, your Creator, O Jacob, and He who formed you, O Israel, ‘Do not fear, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name; you are Mine!’”
Yes, it felt wonderful when that artist remembered me, but the fact that the creator of the universe has called me by name, calls me His own is enough to calm my deepest fears.
