Recently I was cleaning out a desk drawer and came upon my collection of name tags. I am not sure why, but I have kept them over the years from times of my employment, as well as events I’ve attended. Some of them have special meaning to me – my student ID from seminary, my Annual Conference ID when I was ordained and became an elder in full connection, my first staff name tag from St. Luke’s. Some of them show what I was doing at the time – I have the name tag from when I attended a Disney Institute conference and another name tag from when I was a guest speaker at the Ben’s Lighthouse Foundation (named in honor of a young boy who was killed in the Newtown, Connecticut school shooting in 2012.) All of them state my name (which is what makes them a “name tag” of course), but several of them also make other declarations about my identity – student, probationary member, and elder in full connection.
My St. Luke’s name tags tell their own story – first I was “Associate Pastor,” then “Executive Pastor,” and now, “Senior Executive Pastor.” Funny thing is, I received my current title when our bishop at the time, Bishop Hayes, was calling me forward at an Annual Conference event when he said something to the effect of, “I want to call Wendy Lambert up. She is the Senior Executive Pastor at St. Luke’s.” When the Bishop declares it – it kind of takes root!
But at the end of the day, a name tag (or even a Bishop for that matter) doesn’t declare who I am. Each ID is sort of a snap shot of what I was doing at any certain moment. What we “do” is important. But “doing” is not as important as “being.” A name tag might say my name and what I do, but it doesn’t define who I “am.”
So, who am I? When I have tried to answer that question, I have found that I sound like a name tag – “I’m Wendy Lambert and I am a wife, a mother,
a preacher, a teacher…”
I think that the only One who can really answer the question of “Who am I?” is the One who created me. When I have doubts or questions about who I am,
I turn to scripture. My favorite response is found in Romans 8:15-16, “For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the spirit of sonship. When we cry, “Abba! Father!” it is the Spirit himself bearing witness with our spirit that we are children of God…”
My name tag from God reads, “Wendy Lambert, Daughter of God.” What does yours say?
Rev. Wendy Lambert, Senior Executive Pastor
