Does anyone out there have eight grand you just don’t know what to do with? Let’s see, what was my mailing address?
Forget that dream vacation. College for the kids? Please, that’s so boring! If you want something worthwhile done with your hard earned money I’ve got great news. You can pay to legally change the middle name of a complete stranger.
Yesterday, on the popular auction site Ebay, a man was offering the world a chance to bid on an auction. The winning bidder would be allowed to legally change that man’s middle name. Don’t we live in a great country?
I‚Äôm sure there are many people out there who don’t like their names. Let‚Äôs face it, if he weren’t such a star we all know Regis would have changed his own name by now! Or did he change his name to Regis?
I do appreciate the parents who are sensitive to the baggage certain names carry. Though I have to wonder about the couple we met camping one time who had not yet named their 3-year-old daughter. They were waiting for her to pick her own name. Wouldn’t you like to be around for that moment? “Hi we just moved in next door and this is our daughter Hello Kitty.”
I‚Äôm also sure there are many people who do not like what they are called by others. I’ve heard my fair share, and have sadly offered a few of my own, of not so flattering names for people.
You’ve been called ‚Äústupid‚Äù or ‚Äúidiot‚Äù or ‚Äúcareless‚Äù and many other hurtful names. You know what it’s like to be defined by what others think about you. You’d welcome the chance for a fresh start. You’d take the offer to be called by a different name. But is EBAY really the venue to turn for inspiration for something as important as a name change?
It seems everyone else, inspired by this developing story, is rushing to setup auctions on EBAY hoping to cash in on the name change phenomenon. I wonder if the cost will be too great. Not the price paid by the winning bidder (who obviously has more dollars than sense) but the price paid by the one who sold to change his name.
Some time ago another auction was held and a higher price was paid for naming rights. The winner of that auction offers to change your name.
He wanted to bid his life that you would no longer be defined by your pains and your hurts. He wanted to bid his life that you would be defined by his promise and your future. An even though he won the auction, and paid a great price, he does not demand to change your name.
No, his offer is voluntary. His offer is joyfully accepted by those whose ears long to be called by their new name. God’s offer, given through Jesus Christ, is aptly expressed in the words of D.J. Butler.
I Will Change Your name
You shall no longer be called
wounded, outcast, lonely or afraid
I Will Change Your name
Your new name shall be
Confident, Joyfulness, Overcoming one
Faithfulness, Friend of God
One who seeks my face
This, my friends, is one name change you cannot find on EBAY.
