Sticks and Stones

We’ve all heard the adage “sticks and stones may break my bones, but names will never hurt me”.  If only.  We know that name calling and giving people ridiculing nicknames can cause harm.  You’ve heard them, maybe even been called them, or worse, used them against others.  “Four eyes,” “brace face,” “nerd,” “shorty”…the list goes on.  No one is exempt from barbs.  Some pretty famous people were given nicknames.  Patton was “Old Blood and Guts”.  Winfield Scott was “Old Fuss and Feathers”.  Grover Cleveland was “Uncle Jumbo”.  William Henry Harrison, who served the shortest term as President, was “Old Granny”.  Still others didn’t rise to the level of official nicknames, but had physical descriptives tied to their fame.  Napoleon was short.  Lincoln was tall and gangly. 

The commonality in all of these names is that they are based, correctly or incorrectly, on something that is distinct to that person, something they said, or something about their appearance.  Cleveland earned the nickname because of his size.  Scott garnered his because he was overly concerned with how he looked.  And well, I think you probably get the picture about Napoleon (surprise ahead…keep reading) and Lincoln. 

Attaching nicknames to people is almost always bad.  It rarely leads to anything positive.  Flip open your Bible to 2 Kings 2:23-24 to see the extreme tragic results of name calling.  But, what if?  What if there were good nicknames (allow me some leeway in defining what a nickname is)?  What if, instead of four eyes, you were called a child of God?  What if, instead of belonging to the nerd group, you were a card-carrying member of a royal priesthood?  What if you were not a loser, but a victor?  What if you were not shameful in the eyes of others, but sinless in the eyes of God? Well, start celebrating, because it is true.  If you are a Jesus follower, then you have some remarkable nicknames…child of God and royal priesthood are just the beginning.  There is also “His workmanship,” “new creation,” “His Bride,” “Chosen Ones,” “Holy,”and “Beloved.”  God looks past the short stature, the tall and gangly, the skin imperfections, all of it, and sees a beautiful creation.  This alone should present us with hope as we go into our day. 

Napoleon is the target of all kinds of jokes because of how tall he was.  Now, here is the surprise as promised…he was average height for the French men of his day.  In other words, he does not warrant all of the “short” jabs and jokes he gets today.  It is too bad that he is known more for this misrepresentation than for some of the ways he provided inspiration to his army.  My favorite quote of any leader (other than Jesus), anywhere, at anytime, belongs to Napoleon…“A leader is a dealer in hope.”

Today, if you are in a leadership role, then you are in a unique position.  You have the power to help others see themselves in a positive light.  People get enough negativity and name-calling from others.  Your job is to inject hope into their circumstances, getting them to see themselves as God sees them – a beautiful and spectacular creation.  If you do that, all of those who are determined to swing sticks and sling stones will be silenced.