What's in a Name?

I decided to write another spiritual post on here, since it appears that the ones I've written in the past have been getting abnormally high amounts of traffic lately.

One of the things I noticed as a missionary was that missionary apartments had a way of collecting weird objects.  I don't know why, but I think that it has something to do with "one man's garbage is another man's treasure," or something like that.  Here are a few examples of what I found over the course of two years:
- A collection of empty bottles of chocolate milk forming a pyramid
- Copies of the LDS Church's 'Ensign' magazine dating back to the early 80's
- Happy meal toys found on the sidewalk
- Tech-Deck fingerboards
- An awful orange corduroy couch from the 70's that was falling apart
- A makeshift weight bar constructed from a broomstick and milk cartons filled with water, all held together by ratty socks

My favorite random missionary apartment item, though, would have to be the giant dictionary in the Jonesboro, AR apartment.  This is the kind of dictionary that English teachers keep on a pedastel at the front of the classroom, and that you could use as a bench-press if you wanted to.  It was unabridged and was originally published in the later 70's.

One day I was bored and decided to start browsing the dictionary.  After looking up a couple of different words, I thought it would be fun to look up my own name (Elder Jacob Low).  This was a dictionary that was comprehensive enough to list "An office of the Priesthood in the Mormon Church" under the definition of "Elder."

Jacob, as you know, comes from the Biblical character in Genesis, and the name means "a supplanter," or "usurper: one who wrongfully or illegally seizes and holds the place of another."  In the Bible, Esau believes Jacob supplanted his birthright as well as his blessing, which is why he angrily exclaims "is not he rightly named Jacob?  for he hath supplanted me these two times!" - Genesis 27:36

...But what really took the cake was the definition of "Low."  This dictionary had over 50 different definitions of the word, taking up an entire column.  Here are some of my favorites, along with my thoughts on them:

 1. Not high or tall.

(Can't really argue with that one.  At least I'm not the shortest [I'm wearing the red tie].)

2. Situated or passing below the normal level or surface (isn't this kinda the same thing?).

3. Not loud.

4. Humble in status (sort of a compliment except for the 'in status' part).

5. Weak, also: depressed (Ouch).

6. Stricken, prostrate.

7. Less than usual in number, amount or value; also: of lesser degree than average.

8. Falling short of standard (Somebody get some ice for that burn!).

9. Unfavorable.

10. Providing little nourishment or strength, as a diet

 (now I feel like you're insulting my figure, as well as what I eat.  That's low, man)

11. Of inferior quality or character.

12. Mean, base, disreputable (you've hurt my feelings and now I'm crying.).

13. Struck or delivered below a contestant's belt [in boxing] (It's hard to hit above the belt when you're "not high or tall")

14. Dead (Whaaa...?  Is this some kind of threat?)

So yeah, that's the name I wore on my nametag for two years.  Elder Low.  I have a wonderful legacy.  Anyway, everbody's name has divers meanings attatched to them--mine just happens to be more conspicuous than most peoples'.  I bring all this up so that we can compare and contrast in just a moment.

Now let's switch to a different dictionary and a different name:

"Christ: The anointed (Gk.) or Messiah (Heb.).  Jesus, who is called Christ, is the firstborn of the Father in the spirit and the Only Begotten of the Father in the flesh.  He is Jehovah, and was foreordained to his great calling...before the world was.

"...He lived a sinless life, and wrought out a perfect atonement for all mankind by the shedding of his blood and his death on the cross.

"...brought to pass the bodily resurrection of every living thing and the salvation and exaltation of the faithful.

"He is the greatest Being to be born on this earth--the perfect example--...He is Lord of lords, King of kings, the Creator, the Savior, the God of the whole earth, the Captain of our salvation, the Bright and Morning Star.

"....His name is above every name, and is the only name under heaven by which we can be saved..."


(LDS Bible Dictionary, pg. 633, emphasis added).

Beautiful, isn't it?  That's quite a stark contrast from the definition of my name.  Webster's Dictionary would be quite a page turner if every definition was this eloquent.

So like I was saying earlier, I wore the name "ELDER LOW" in big bold letters on my shirt pocket everyday for two years.  But underneath that were the words "The Church of JESUS CHRIST of Latter-day Saints."  Emphasis was put on "Jesus Christ,"  making it the second most visible part of my nametag.  I wore that name everyday for two years as well.  If I were to engage in some disorderly conduct and someone saw it, I promise you that one of the first things they would notice is the name on shirt pocket.  That person's opinion of that name and everything it represented would likely have been greatly diminished.

Now, I may have taken upon myself the name of Christ in a more conspicuous manner, but everyone who has been baptized has taken upon themselves the name of Christ in a much nore meaningful way:

8 And it came to pass that he said unto them: Behold, here are the waters of Mormon (for thus were they called) and now, as ye are desirous to come into the fold of God, and to be called his people, and are willing to bear one another’s burdens, that they may be light;

 9 Yea, and are willing to mourn with those that mourn; yea, and comfort those that stand in need of comfort, and to stand as witnesses of God at all times and in all things, and in all places that ye may be in, even until death, that ye may be redeemed of God, and be numbered with those of the first resurrection, that ye may have eternal life—

 10 Now I say unto you, if this be the desire of your hearts, what have you against being baptized in the name of the Lord, as a witness before him that ye have entered into a covenant with him, that ye will serve him and keep his commandments, that he may pour out his Spirit more abundantly upon you?

-Mosiah 18: 8-10 (emphasis added)

These verses display some of the promises that we make when we are baptized, and is one of many examples in the scriptures where the importance of taking upon yourself the name of the Lord is mentioned.  Alma 5 and Kings Benjamin's address in Mosiah 2-4 are two other excellent examples found in the Book of Mormon. 

What does it mean to take upon yourself the name of Christ?  It means that you covenant that you will "stand as witnesses of God at all times and in all things, and in all places that ye may be in, even until death."  In other words: you might as well be wearing a nametag that says 'Jesus Christ' on it all day long.

How do you think the Savior feels when people do stupid stuff in his name?  Could it be possible that this is one of the ways that we break the third commandment?

I would like to challenge you to remember that you are a representitive of Jesus Christ, and that there are people who are looking to you as an example.  Please, please, please don't anything to tarnish the name you carry.

A Talk I Recently Gave on Baptism

I've actually been meaning to write on here for a while, but have had a bit of a writer's block on what to actually write about.  

...Come to think about it, I've had a writer's block on everything I've been wanting to write about.  I couldn't even think of an appropriate Facebook status to report the other day  (you know things are boring when you can't even write a sentence about what's going on right now).

So I decided to share with you some thoughts that I recently shared at my BYU student ward a couple of weeks ago.  For those who are not members of the LDS faith; we don't have a regular paid clergy at our church, and the weekly sermons come from different members of the congregation week to week.  It helps each of us learn from each others' thoughts on various subjects, and if you don't like the current speaker, you can take comfort that he's only going to be talking to us for the next 15 minutes.  I'm grateful for every opportunity I have to speak to a congregation because I'm pretty sure that I actually learn a lot more from preparing a talk than the congregation does from listening to it.  Plus, I get to practice some public speaking skills that I may need for future world domination plans.

This last time, I was asked to speak about the broad topic of baptism.  As a missionary, I probably gave seven talks on this topic and taught countless lessons on it during my last two years.  But this time, I really struggled with something to say.  Most of the males in the congregation had been on missions as well, and also had lots of experience on the topic of baptism.  So I naturally wanted to say something that was new and a little bit unique.

Well, during my mission and through a couple of other study sessions, I found some interesting little facts here and there.   Most people who are familiar with the Bible know of story of Jesus' baptism:

 "The cometh Jesus from Galilee to Jordan unto John, to be baptized of him...And Jesus, when he was baptized, went up straightway out of the water: and, lo, the heavens were opened unto him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove, and lighting upon him: and lo a voice from heaven, saying, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased."--Matt 3: 13, 16-17.

So that's pretty familiar stuff to most of Christianity.  Now, a while ago I was browsing the Bible Dictionary, which is found at the back of the LDS edition of the Bible.  The Bible Dictionary is exactly what its name implies--a dictionary for Biblical terms.  I find reading it fascinating (side note:  the unsaid suffix to any usage of the word 'fascinating' are the two words 'to me').  Anyway, there's a little entry in there titled 'Gospels, Harmony of.'  In this entry, you'll find something that looks like this:

In the left-hand column, you'll find a chronological listing of the events in Jesus' life, followed by their location, and then a scriptural reference where you can find this event in the four main Gospels.  As you can (barely) see from the above photo, some events occur in multiple Gospels, others occur in only one.

Now, at the end of the Gospel of John, we read: "And there are also many other things which Jesus did, the which, if they should be written every one, I suppose that even the world itself could not contain the books that should be written."  So if we take that statement at face value, that means that the stuff we read in the Bible is really only scratching the surface of the ministry of Jesus.  So we're going to assume that because an event has been written by one of the four Gospel writers, it must be an event that was somewhat more important to that writer than some of the other events in the life of Christ.

In the Harmony of the Gospels table, we'll see 315 events in the life of Jesus listed (yeah, I actually did count that number up--like I said earlier; my life is not that exciting).  Of those events, only 29 were deemed important enough to be written of in all four Gospels.  Some of these events include feeding the five thousand, the triumphal entry, and the betrayal of Judas. 

Now, in this table, we'll find one last column that I haven't mentioned yet: Latter-Day Revelation.  This column lists spots that these various events are mentioned in scripture unique to Latter-Day Saints (i.e.: The Book of Mormon, Doctrine and Covenants, etc.).  Of the 29 above events, only three are found in all four Gospels and in Latter-Day Revelation--according to this table.  Those events are: John the Baptist's Prophetic Ministry, The baptism of Jesus, and The crucifixion.  The reason the resurrection of Jesus isn't one of the three is because it is actually listed as a couple dozen individual events, but it is covered in all four Gospels plus Latter-Day Revelation (it's a similar story with all the events leading up to Jesus' death, including his suffering in Gethsemane).

So if we were to go off the Harmony of the Gospels' table, it would be fairly safe to say that the three most written about events in the life of Jesus Christ would be:
1.) His baptism and the ministry of John the Baptist.
2.) His death and the events surrounding it.
3.) His resurrection.
(side note 2: Yes, I did count all these things up myself.  No, I do not have a social life.)

Why is it that Jesus' baptism is important enough that every source we've talked about found time to write about it?  I personally believe (and this is just my musings)  that the key rests in the word 'covenant.'  When any of us is baptized, we make a covenant to God that we will keep His commandments and take the name of Jesus Christ upon us.  Jesus has always been the perfect example to each of us, and his example would not be complete without showing us that we need to follow him and be baptized as well.  By being baptized, Christ is essentially telling each of us that there is a path to follow, and that being baptized if one of the very first steps.

I took this covenant upon myself over thirteen years ago.  And I'm sorry to report that sometimes I kind of trample on it or forget about it.  As I was doing this research, I realized that this was pretty important stuff.  It's almost as if the scriptures are saying "these things are important.  I keep repeating them so you don't forget them!"  May we all continue to remember the promises that we have made, and keep them.

Anyway, that's all an outline of some of the things that I spoke about  a couple of weeks ago.  You know, for someone with writer's block, I sure did ramble for a while there.  My congratulations to you if you're still reading this. I know it's kind of a long post, but I found it fascinating [to me].  Please, feel free to comment and share some of your thoughts, I would love to hear from you!