As I reflect on the beginning of my sixty- second year on earth I find my self thinking abstract thoughts. One in particular keeps surfacing…I am a loyal person. If I have become a friend, mentor, or professional colleague the odds are that I am loyal to that role. I am loyal to the name my Dad and Mom gave me, Shauna Jill Autrey. I am proud to carry the name of my father and his father before me. I am loyal to the name my husband Bob gave me, Dorman. With that name I was bestowed upon the honorable name Wife and Mother and now grandmother…Dodi. I am loyal to the name sister as well. Only two men in the whole world can call me sister.
In these names I find my role, my purpose, my dignity as well as my failures, successes, joys, grief, and even disappointment because after all, the One common denominator is me. My self and my human destiny. This loyalty to these names have produced a great story. Not one as noble as I wished perhaps but nevertheless it is my story. I am loyal to that story…I remain and will remain loyal to the good times and difficulties of childhood. The good certainly far outweighs the bad…college was a little rough though and my loyalty to my self slipped a bit. Overall, it’s the simple story of Redemption…the reality that I am part of The Fall…finding that all my loyalty to a name, a family, a faith in God could not give me the merit and absolution that lies between my creator and myself. In other words I was in darkness and separated from God…well the rest of the story is long but is turning out well…I have Jesus to thank for it all. I am to be given a new name in due time. I  not know what it is yet…it is a name given to me by the One who is called Faithful and True! Now THAT is a name I can be loyal to and real with…so I continue on and head gladly into my sixth decade. I loyally carry my earthly names and give them without fear or regret to The Holy One and with incredible longing I look forward to the new name that Jesus himself has promised me on that Day…
“I will also give them a white stone, and on the stone a New name is inscribed that no one knows except the one who receives it…”