What's in a Name?

Posted by Lisa Laree to Beer Lahai Roi

I actually started thinking about writing both blogs long before I started them; do you know what held them up?

I couldn't think of a name.

The name really was a big deal to me; the name kinda sets the tone for what is going to be included and how it's going to be expressed. With the sewing blog, inspiration hit when my older daughter exclaimed, for the umpteenth time, 'That's so random!' and the lightbulb suddenly went on...Sew Random was perfect for a blog that was basically about sewing all kinds of different things and would sometimes wander off into philosophical musings. I thought that the occasional post of a reflective nature would be sufficient to express that part of who I am, but over time I realized it really wasn't. The kicker came one Sunday when we had an incredibly moving service at church...and my blog post was, by my own criteria, about what I wore that day. I struggled. Should I ditch the 'sewing' format and go with what was stirring my spirit? But I had built a number of friends through the sewing blog; how could I just drop them? And 'Sew Random' didn't work for a journal of introspection and spirituality. The solution was obvious: start a second blog. But...what on earth could I call it?

I thought of calling it after the Ladies' Bible Study I'd taught for three years... 'Bible Study 101'. My goal there was to teach some Bible study skills/methods, as well as demonstrate that the Bible is a book anyone can read and understand. Somehow, we've got the idea that one needs a seminary degree to understand the Bible, or a study guide to take us through it. 'Bible Study 101' was about learning to read/study for oneself. All I suggested was a Bible, a notebook, and a four-color pen(I'll 'splain that in another post sometime soon).

But that didn't really reflect what I wanted; I didn't *just* want a Bible Study blog, although I wanted that to be part of the content. Besides, it struck me as being kind of...arrogant...to be on the 'Web, where there are so many excellent Bible teachers doing blogs, and call myself the equivalent of a college course.

So 'Bible Study 101' was out.

And I had nothing else even in consideration.

I'm not going to try to go into what God has been doing in me in the last two months or so...it has been a pretty intense period. But I will say that the most recent 'stretching event' was Wellington Boone's Women's Conference at his church in Norcross, GA. I've posted on the sewing blog about Bishop Boone (Pinch Me), and I was really excited to be able to go to the conference this year. No,'excited' wasn't exactly the word; I was in desperate need of some time away to focus on getting some direction for what should come next.

Ok, I'm going to be real, here. I grew up in an independant Baptist church in Indiana and spent over 20 years in a Southern Baptist church in our area before we got transplanted to the charismatic, Pentecostal-style non-denominational church we now attend. I have a lot of respect for Baptists; they teach the Word (or used to, anyway) in a systematic fashion. There are not a lot of churches that do that anymore. But.
(And I'm leaving it there...I don't want to be critical or judgmental. Anyway, but.)

Now, I know I've got teaching gifts. I've taught for years. And, in the Baptist church teaching was ok. But women preachers...um, no. So I told myself that I was not called to preach. Teach, sure. Not preach. Nope. Not me.

Well, at the conference last weekend Bishop Boone busted that wide open. He actually called everyone who was called to preach (at a women's conference, mind you!) to the front, so he could anoint them. Now, if you've been in a service where you've had that spirit quickening when God is talking to you, you know what happens...the pulse rate goes up, palms get sweaty...and you're confronted with a choice. That's what happened to me. I'd gone to the conference looking for the breakthrough...the next step...and it was like I had a revelation that I had been denying what God was putting on me, for the simple reason that I was afraid of being judged ('Oh, yeah, they went to that church because she wanted to preach'). And that was something that needed repentance.

So I swallowed hard and went up when he called us. A public confession of something I did not even want to admit to myself. And the Bishop got the oil and anointed and spoke prophetically over every one of us up there. (If you clicked through to 'Pinch Me', you have some idea of what that meant to me to be anointed by someone who has been speaking into my life and marriage for several years. Wow.)

And what he emphasized to us, both that night and in his closing remarks at the end of the conference, was 'I have confirmed the call, and I have seen you.'

Even the next week, the words, 'I have seen you' were echoing in my spirit...and suddenly I saw the point... it is God who sees me.

And Beer Lahai Roi is perfect.

The funny thing is, I picked a name I didn't know how to pronounce! I looked it up in several references; only one had any pronunciation guide at all, and all it said was "beer LAhai roi". So, aside from the emphasis being in the first syllable of 'Lahai', I'm still guessing. Is 'hai' pronounced 'hay', 'hie' or 'hay-eye'? Is 'Roi' pronounced 'Roy', 'Roe-ee', 'Roe-eye'? Does it matter?

I'm at Beer Lahai Roi, getting the life-giving water from the well. And I'm blessed that a few folks are interested in joining me here.