The Birth of Christopher Dryden – What’s In A Name?

What’s in a name?  Why’s it so important?  What’s the big deal?

Familiar opening?  In a very recent blog I was establishing the death of the name ‘Chris Dryden’ in reference to myself.  Now I can imagine one or two reactions to that might be along the following lines.

“Oooooohhh look who’s gone all la-di-dah.  Ain’t he a one, wanting people to call him ‘Christopher’ instead of ‘Chris’.  What a snob!  I suppose he’ll want me to bow before him as his name is mentioned as well.  What’s all the fuss about?  It’s easier and quicker to call him Chris, no great issue on it, no one means anything nasty by it.  He should chill out and be more concerned about important things like his family and his job and enjoying his life rather than wasting space talking about his name.”

Previously this would not be an issue at all.  Events have transpired over the last 18 months or so to make things very different for me.

Certain events in life happen and have such an impact on you that your whole way of looking at yourself can change drastically.  A significant loss in the family, losing a job that you’d had for a long time, being involved in a big motor accident and sustaining serious injuries, whatever it is the effects it can take can be seismic.

My journey with Jesus Christ has taken some twists and turns over the years, but by the end of 2008 and into 2009 I was facing some huge life-changing decisions that would rock the very foundations of every thing I held to be true.  Little hints that had been accumulating over the years in one shape or form all seemed to culminate in a torrent of doubt, confusion, misunderstanding, disillusionment and despondency.  From that process emerged a slow rebuilding programme.  Everything was up for questioning and some restructuring work needed to be done.  One thing for sure was that the man I had been for the previous years could no longer continue.  That was epitomised in my name.

‘Chris’, to me, means nothing.  Not only is it shortened, but in shortening it there is not a name of intirgue and value, there’s just a sharp sound.  It’s a bit like fizzy drinks.  Yeah there’s the fizz and immediate apparent thirst satisfaction only for there to be no substance behind.  Chris Dryden likewise was just a fizzy personality – see the grin, hear the quip, wander at his wordplay … and little else.  Thus he was there to be entertaining and he could be relied on for the right sentiment more often than not – but little else.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not suggesting I was a waste of time for the first 32 years of my life.  I’m not saying I never had deep and meaningful relationships and made significant contributions to the lives of many.  I know I did – and that’s not being big-headed – that’s just fact.

The realisation was, however, I had been coasting on the crest of a wave.  Almost as if people didn’t expect much other than Chris, when there was so much more I had to offer.  It was again about looking to live up (or in most cases down) to people’s expectations rather than actually appreciating God’s expectations.  When I began to learn the difference between the two and how affirmation of my identity would not be found in cutting myself short, that was the jolt I needed to wake me from my reverie of coasting through life being a fizzy personality.

Christopher speaks of carrying across.  It’s a name in Greek, apparently, that looks at carrying across the Christ and is related to the story of the saint of the same name who apparently carried children across a stream literally off his own back.  This level of self-less service to help others in their journey is about responsibility, service, support, care, compassion, strength, capability and humilty.  That name wasn’t given to me on a whim.

From my family’s perspective my dad embodies those characteristics and my mother and her family especially brought these issues to the fore in times of family tragedy.  I got the name from my maternal grandmother not too long after one of her sons passed away and I feel something as well being bequeathed from the family line in the name.

Even more important, though, is the growing acknowledgement over recent months and years that God has called me to carry across the message of Christ,  the message of the Kingdom, the message of the Good News.  Whilst I carry that across I am also to carry others across to a growing relationship with Jesus.  That requires more than a fizzy personality.  That calls for a lot more than what Chris Dryden was giving.  Yet gratefully, it also requires me to realise that I can only carry as well as I understand how I am being carried.  The strength to carry across others and to carry the message across comes from the assurance of knowing that I am myself being carried by the loving grace of God.  There is no pressure on me to source my own ability, to feel under pressure to perform for others.

I believe part of that carrying across is through communication – which is why things like this blog is important. I also believe part of the carrying across is through edifying through teaching – and I see that as much as a mutual activity as possible.  That means I’m not in the ‘higher’ position of teaching to you, rather I facilitate and stimulate the learning experience however I can to help us get across from one stage of life’s journey to the next.

This is more than what Chris Dryden ever was and as long as I was agreeing with that moniker, I was responsible for cutting myself short more than anyone else.  So the only way to make progress from that was to say goodbye forever to him and all he represents in that name.

That journey began in earnest when the name died and the real name emerged, following those long hard months of pregnant anticipation.

Hopefully you’ll see that this is not a contrived attempt to be upper class or consider myself ‘better than you’.  It’s another step in the growing revelation of who I am called to be.

That is why I am humbled and overjoyed to tell you, my name is

Christopher Dryden

For His Name’s Sake

Shalom

dmcd