So, what’s in a name?  Several months ago I found myself at lunch with a dear friend who was struggling with a dilemma in his life.  As we engaged in conversation my friend began to express to me how his life was, like many, compartmentalized into many independent but not interrelated parts.  More importantly he felt like he had to live up to the demands of having a different title for every compartment of his life.  At home he was husband and father.  At work he was boss.  At church he was elder.  And to those closest to him he was friend.  Keeping up with this was draining the life right out of him.  Further conversation revealed that even that wasn’t the root of the real dilemma.  It seemed that what was causing him the most consternation and angst was that he recognized in himself that he actually loved differently in each area of his life.  He was bothered by the feeling that he was not the same man day in and day out.  He wondered if there might be a better approach.  A way to let’s say live a “seamless life.”  Well two things came to mind to share with him.  First, the more obvious one was that rather than live a life broken up into stand alone compartments he needed to begin to pursue with great intention living an integrated life wherein those disparate, solo compartments begin to interleave and intertwine with one another.  In other words, make it a life pursuit (and it will take that long) to end your days with your life represented by one compartment.  One that holds the contents of all of your life.  That time when the circles of life are intended to become the “circle of life.”  The second thought to consider was to come up with a title for his life.  To go through a disciplined exercise to boil down into one title, one name that would govern every area of his life.  To even visually imagine handing out a business card that rather than having the traditional job title would actually reveal a title for living.  A title like Encourager, Teacher, Giver, Connector, etc.   Just imagine the cumulative effect of living a life that was filtered through the lens of that “one thing.”  Certainly you would still find yourself to be husband (or wife), dad (or mom), boss, friend, etc. but you would now have an overarching characteristic, a framework, a purpose that would fully inform how you live your life.  Talk about life giving!  Peace.