Last week, I shared that a 2005 StatsCan study revealed 61 per cent of rural residents knew all of their neighbours, but only 16 per cent of those living in major urban centres did.

This isn’t terribly surprising.  Do you have a hard time remembering names in the first place?  I certainly do, even though I know I shouldn’t.  Sometimes I forget the moment someone tells me…I was too busy thinking about what to say next!

But names are important.  According to a Lifehacker blog post, “a person’s own name is the single most important word to him/her; it is intimately tied to his/her identity as an individual. How you deal with people’s names can have a profound effect on their impressions of you: Think about the times you’ve felt special when someone you admired addressed you by your name in a sincere tone; or think about the times when you’ve felt belittled when someone negligently called you by the wrong name, or worse, maliciously made fun of your name in front of you.”

But something so important is also so easily forgotten.  Sometimes it’s physiology, since “names are among the first things to go as our brains begin shrinking — by about half of one per cent annually — starting as early as our thirties.”

People come up with all kinds of strategies for remembering names.  Personally, I write the name down as soon as I can, since it helps me most to see the name in print somewhere.   It works for me, but maybe not you.

Question: How well do you remember names?  What strategies help you?

Ryan Sim - April 17, 2013

Wednesday - Change - Perfection

Jesus said, "Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect." If the Sermon on the Mount was just about a list of rules for us this would be discouraging, hopeless. But it's not. It's about Jesus - his blueprint for his life - showing us what God is really like. We are meant to see that Jesus looks like God. It's not just about how to behave, but how to discover the living God in Jesus, and reflect that into the world. He is the pattern, blueprint for our lives as well. Perfect in greek is teleioi. A word about Identity, where perfection relates to love. God is love…all loving. Some scholars say "all embracing" is what that perfect word means. To be like God is undiscriminating and undifferentiating love toward all. Even those who don’t deserve it. He’s loving and merciful. Of course love doesn’t mean endorsement, or uncaringly saying “I don’t care what you do”. Sometimes God’s love means he protects us, stops us, redirects us, and more. We show we are children of God when we show Christlikeness. All embracing love. Connection back to love last week - Love is not sporadic, but who we are. Even with enemies. "To return evil for good is devilish, to return good for good is human, to return good for evil is divine." - Alfred Plummer Even with Jesus' example, we can be discouraged. He WAS God, so being godly was no great feat. What about us? We'll see tomorrow why there is hope for us being perfect(ed). Question: Jesus actually lived the perfect, loving life he commands us to live. Does this encourage, or discourage you? Why?

Related Topics: Disappointment, God, Perfection | More Messages from Ryan Sim | Download Audio

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