Some Thoughts On My Name Change

As some of you may know, I changed my name to Obadiah recently. If you don’t know and want to know why or how that happened, read the earlier blog post, My Name is Obadiah.

Well I really did it, I changed my name. Also I stuck it out long enough to not be able to go back, the only way I could actually go back to Brian is if I moved to somewhere where I don’t know anybody. I have to say it has been a challenge, coming back from Uganda and to South Africa most of the people here knew my name had changed, but some of the people here have known me for almost two years now, so it was difficult for them to adjust to it. Frankly in the beginning people did a better job at calling me Obadiah then I did. The week after I made the change I was introducing myself to someone and I said, “ Hi, my name is Brian, I mean, uh, Obadiah.” I walked away mortified wondering how weird this person must think I am.

Even with the awkward introductions or having to correct people when they call my name, I am proud to have changed my name to Obadiah. It my first post I spoke about how the change was prophetic, and it would be speaking truth to power. That absolutely has been the case, and it has helped me become more of the person that I feel God wants me to be. I feel more confident in what God has spoken to me outside of this name change, and just have confidence in myself. For some of you it may not have known that a lack of self confidence was a huge issue that I have been facing for years, one that has crippled me from going to college, from almost not coming to South Africa to begin with, and one that almost had me never come back to staff with YWAM. I always saw myself as not good enough for a long time, and if I am honest I still sometimes do. But when people call me Obadiah, I remember it’s meaning and think to myself, “you are a servant of God.” That has been helpful for me to grow in my confidence, to see myself as a leader, and to be more comfortable in my own skin. All of this growth has been in direct relation to my change of name, which I am so thankful for. Also on a side note, most of the time when I am out and about I’ ll introduce myself to someone and people have generally have had two different reactions.The first reaction is people not understanding what I said, which isn’t surprising. The second reaction is that people think it is an interesting name, and ask me more about, which most times ends in me speaking about Jesus or people thinking I’m jewish because it is an Hebrew name.

So we will see how being Obadiah goes from here on out, but for now it has been worth it! so worth it. This is just a quick and simple update, but I wanted to make sure I shared how the change has gone so far. Thank you for giving it a read!

(The image above is a Orthodox icon of Obadiah the Prophet, author of The Old Testament book, Obadiah.)