Name Dropping

I'm sure you've noticed our propensity to name drop. "I shook hands with the President!" "I sat next to Aaron Rogers on the plane." "Channing Tatum smiled at me!" Having close encounters with famous people makes us look good; it makes us look like important insiders. But name dropping only works if you have a close brush with somebody well-known. If you say, "Pastor Brian shook my hand." You ain't goin' nowhere! Why? Pastor Brian doesn't throw touchdown passes on television every Sunday while tens of thousands watch from their stadium seats and millions more watch from their couches. I don't possess that kind of social currency. Aaron Rogers does. That's why telling somebody you sat next to Aaron Rogers on an airplane looks and sounds better than telling somebody you sat next to some pastor named 'Brian'.

If your brushes with greatness and, even more, the company you keep says something about your importance, what does it say that the God who created Aaron Rogers knows you, loves you very much, and lives inside you? "Channing Tatum smiled at me!" Big deal! I just spent time conversing with the God who created Channing Tatum!

Having close encounters with "people of significance" is nothing compared to knowing and being loved by the God who created them.