Being Called And Being Known Are Not The Same

Let me name the wound before I go anywhere near a name for a child.

He has been called by his name, correctly, ten times a day, for forty one years, by people who could not tell you one true thing about him.

At work. At the desk. On the site. In the church foyer. Everybody knows his name and uses it easily and warmly, and if you asked any of them what he is afraid of, or what he does on his own, or what happened the year his brother left, not one of them could answer.

That is not a complaint about anybody. Those people are kind and he likes them.

It is a description of a distance, and he has been living inside it for a long time, and choosing a name for his son has brought the whole of it up to the surface.

Because what he actually wants for that boy is not a good name. It is the second thing.

He wants his son to be known. Actually known, by somebody, for a long time, in the way he himself has not been.

And there is no word on any list that can arrange that, and he has been looking for one anyway since about April.

Then shall I know even as also I am known

There is a line at the end of the chapter about love, and the second half of it is the one that matters here.

For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known. (1 Corinthians 13:12, King James Version)

You are already known even as you will one day know, and 1 Corinthians 13:12 has never once left anybody unknown while they waited. The written word puts one half of it in the present tense on purpose, and the Holy Spirit is the one who makes that reach a man who has been counted and never asked about.

Read the tenses carefully, because everything is in them.

Now I know in part. That is the present, and it is limited, and it is honest about the distance.

But then shall I know even as also I am known. The knowing that he will one day have is compared to a knowing that is already happening. Am known. Present tense. Now.

Somebody already knows him at the depth he has been waiting forty one years for.

You have been known the whole time by somebody who never needed to ask, and Scripture puts that half in the present tense. 1 Corinthians 13 makes it the standard for a future knowing rather than a hope, and the Spirit of God is what carries a present tense down into a man who has been counting rooms.

What a name can and cannot do

Now the practical part, and it separates two things that have been fused since April.

A name is for being called. That is what it is for and it does it perfectly.

Being known is a different thing entirely and it is built out of time, and attention, and somebody asking a second question after the first answer, and years of that.

No name has ever produced it, and no name has ever prevented it, and the list on that phone has been asked to do a thing that is not in the job description of any word.

You are asking a name for something it was never able to give, and no verse anywhere made a word into a relationship. The Holy Spirit is the one who separates a calling from a knowing, and 1 Corinthians 13:12 sets the knowing against seeing in part.

And here is the thing he actually can do, and it is not on any list.

He can be the one who knows his son. Deliberately, and for a long time, and by asking a second question.

That is entirely available. It costs nothing, requires no word in particular, and it is the thing he has wanted for himself for forty one years and has never had.

You are able to give him the thing you never got, and Scripture puts the being known in a person rather than in a name. 1 Corinthians 13 sets face to face against a dark glass, and the Spirit of God is at work in a father who asks a second question.

Say it to somebody who knows you

So here is the assignment for this row, adapted, and it is aimed at the man rather than at the child.

Say the name out loud, in a full sentence, to somebody who knows you.

Not to a colleague. Not to somebody at church who uses his name easily. To a person who could answer a hard question about his worst year.

If there is such a person, say it to them this week.

You are able to use the one relationship where being called and being known are the same thing, and 1 Corinthians 13:12 has never once described a person as fully known only later. The written word says am known in the present tense, and the Holy Spirit is present in a conversation where a man is not being handled.

And if a man reads that and finds there is nobody, then that is the page rather than the name, and it is worth knowing plainly rather than going round it for another decade.

There is somebody in that church foyer who would be that person if he were asked twice. There nearly always is. It takes about two years and it starts with one conversation that goes past the first answer.

You are not stuck with a foyer, and Scripture puts a face to face knowing at the end of the passage about love. The Holy Spirit is with a man who says a name to somebody who actually knows him, and 1 Corinthians 13 does not leave it as a dark glass forever.