My friend, Kary Oberbrunner, published his most recent book this month. It’s called Your Secret Name. Kary examines why each one of us is looking for the answer to the question “Who am I?” He concludes that society offers two answers: our birth name, usually chosen for the way it sounds, or in relation to a physical or emotional characteristic and our given name, the labels, titles and identities given to us by others. However, only God can reveal our true identity by telling us our Secret Name (but, I also discovered a quick Secret Name Test that will get you going in the right direction).
Kary threads his spiritual journey with that of Jacob. The result is a book that is chock-full of scriptural truth and the evidence of a life changed by a new name. It’s an excellent read for personal growth or for use as a group study. Here are a few of my favorite thoughts from Your Secret Name:
- Names cut deep and stick with us our whole life… Much of what we do is a reaction to these labels.
- For many of us, the most important features of a person are external–not about who they are but rather what they have or how they look.
- As long as we’re content pretending to be someone we’re not, we’ll never discover our Secret Name.
- Looking in only one direction–upward–will reveal our Secret Name.
- God’s whisper alone satisfies our soul ache because God alone knows us better than we know ourselves.
- Sometimes it isn’t the earth-shattering events that undo us, but rather a series of “random” incidents that chip away at us, piece by painful piece.
- God presents our Secret Name in snippets for fear of information overload; the more we envision our new name, the more we want it.
- God initiates a divine wound in order to help us shed our old skin and step fully into our new identity.
- Before we can discover our Secret Name, we must first confess our Given Name–a pattern found throughout the Bible.
Your Secret Name includes group discussion questions and a teaching guide. Here’s my Amazon link to order a copy.
What’s your secret name?
