This morning I awoke thinking about the Simon/Peter renaming. Peter was so unlike a rock when Jesus called him that, yet it was exactly who he became – the rock upon which the Christian church was built.

There is such power in what you are called to do and to become.

I confessed on a comment on Sandra’s blog this morning that I’m super shy! We’re talking 10 out of 10 on the Myers-Briggs introvert scale. I used to pay my sister money to go talk to the store clerks for me (I was the older sister). My shyness was so debilitating.

Gradually, I have overcome much of that. I still have a great deal of anxiety in certain situations, but I cover it well.

So, I’ve been thinking…what is it that God is calling me…what is my new name? I awoke this morning with this word in my head: Bold.

Yikes! I’m anything but Bold! But that is the point, isn’t it. Hershiser was anything but a “Bulldog”; Simon was far from being a “Rock”. Yet…it can be so.

It will be a major change…this shy girl becomes Bold? Yet, as I look back over the events in my last few years there have been several events requiring bold moves. This last year, especially, has been a lesson in boldness for me. Not only all the due process battles and issues that have pushed me toward advocacy roles (which is the biggie in boldness training), but I’ve been involved in situations through our church and other avenues of my life where boldness was definitely needed. It has been incredibly uncomfortable. I haven’t always come through like I’d hoped. Man, it’s hard for me to confront anyone! But I’m learning, growing, changing. And trying not to be too hard on myself when I’m not as bold as I’d hoped I would be.

Oh how I wish God had said “the Rock” was my name. After all, I’m pretty calm, stable, dependable. But that’s not the way it works, is it? The name by which we’re called is something we’re growing into. What good does it do to label ourselves with something we find easy to do, something that comes naturally? Otherwise, where would God come in?