What’s in a Name? – Association of Christian Spiritual Directors in New Zealand

This was a process developed in Dunedin to discuss the suggestion that our organisation might consider changing its name. The executive felt it was a good process, and offers it here for others.

1. YOUR NAME
What do you like/not like about your name?
What does it say about who you are?

2. FINDING YOUR “TRUE NAME”

A model by Robert Wicks in Streams of Contentment

“To be truly our ordinary selves, each of us must respond to three calls. If we don’t, there is a good chance that we will spend our lives focused externally on our persona or reputation, merely existing, drifting, or reacting to the events in our lives.”

“If we are aware of the three calls or identity each of us must face eventually in life, we can let go of the past and respond to the calls when they present themselves.”

“We especially see the importance of names in the Bible. In the Hebrew scriptures, Abram is called to become Abraham, the father of his people, and Sarai to become Sarah, a woman filled with new potential. In the Christian scriptures, we see how Simon is renamed Peter, and later Saul becomes Paul.”

3. WHAT IS OUR OWN NEW NAME?

Three Calls to finding our True Name (according to Wick’s in Streams of Contentment):

Self-awareness
1. knowing your “true name”
2. Choose a word that describes you that you feel is most reflective of your gifts.
Pruning
1. Choose a second word that balances out your primary gift. A word that brings you into your health space or shadow.
2. This word helps us step back into our shadow to balance our primary personality trait. It brings focus and balance to accentuate our main gift in ordinary living
Transformation: Putting our second name in front of our first
1. Requires mindfulness- living in the now with eyes wide open
2. Done slowly and gently so others will hardly notice
3. You may experience some darkness when stepping into the ‘name’ you chose to prune your central charism.

An example by Robert Wicks:

“For me, I have always been passionate, knew I needed to then balance it with gentleness, and finally that gentleness needed to take center stage. The darkness of this final leap comes about when I emphasize gentleness and realize how I have failed to be so in the past and even when I want to be in the present how I fail so miserably at times. Someone once asked, then why would you do this if darkness is experienced? Well, the darkness reminds me that I can’t do it alone and the reality of grace and this in some way helps me feel free from believing I can do it all on my own.”