By Jeremiah, Eugene and Me.

In his book on Jeremiah, Eugene Peterson says the book of Jeremiah begins with a personal name, Jeremiah. It begins “The words of Jeremiah son of Hilkiah, one of the priests at Anathoth in the territory of Benjamin. ” 1.1

Naming focuses the essential. Eugen Rosenstock-Huessy says “the name is the state of speech in which we do not speak of people, but in which we speak to people. It is the right address of a person under which he or she will respond.” 198

‘Any time we move from personal names to labels, graphs or statistics, we are less in touch with (our) reality. Yet we are encouraged on every side to do just that. Resistance is required if we are to retain our humanity.’ 199

‘At our birth we are named, not numbered’ 198 ‘Names mean something. A personal name designates what is irreducibly personal.’ ‘The meaning of the name is discovered in relationship. It was to Jeremiah “to whom the word of the Lord came”.’ 201 ‘The exact meaning of Jeremiah is not certain: it may mean “the Lord exalts”; it may mean “the Lord hurls”. What is certain is that “the Lord “, the personal name of God, is in his name.’ 203 ‘on the day that he was born, Hilkiah and his wife named him in anticipation of the way that God would act in his life. In hope they saw their son as one in whom the Lord would be lifted up: Jeremiah – the Lord is exalted’. Or they anticipated their son would be a person whom God would hurl into the community like javelin penetrating to the heart of the matter: Jeremiah – the Lord hurls. 203/4

Jeremiah – a name linked with the name and action of God. The only thing more significant to Jeremiah than his own being is God’s being. He explored the reality of God and in the process developed and matured. He was always reaching out, always finding more truth, getting in touch with more of God, becoming more human, more himself.’ 206

‘No child is just a child. Each is a creature in whom God intends to do something glorious.’ 204 And a given name can be a sign of that glorious thing that God wants to do through a child’s life. Thus George Herbert, the sixteenth century poet-priest said ‘admit no vain or idle names’ in dedication. 202

My name is David in English, Dawid in Hebrew or Dauod as I was known in India. The meaning of the name is uncertain, but in the concordance one of the variant readings of the name is loving which is very close to what my parents said my name meant. They said David meant beloved.

In this sense I have grown up as a David. I have grown up feeling loved by my father and mother especially and by the God who my parents represented. I have been loved, and feel as if my fundamental identity is in being loved and in being able to love.

My greatest joy is in living out this love with my wife and children, family and friends. And my greatest sorrow is when my love for others is not reciprocated. When I am not loved by others I not only lose them, I lose myself – for if I am not the beloved then I am nobody.

The only way I have been able to deal with existential dilemma is to turn to God. God is love. And whenever I turn to God I feel loved, and I can regain my identity as the beloved again. This experience is the core (coeur) experience of my life.

This is my joy and my song. The beating heart of my books and my work. It is the sine qua non of my life: the thing without which nothing makes sense to me at all. I am Dave Andrews – the David, the Beloved of God. That is the secret of my life. That is my experience, my purpose, my passion, my hope, and my salvation. Call me by my name – Dave, David, Dawid, Dauod, the Beloved – and no matter how depressed I may be, I will rise – like Jesus rose from the dead – for the occasion!

My mission in life is to communicate the amazing, mystical, miraculous love of God in words and deeds, with signs and wonders. So that I can help everyone I meet find their identity as the beloved in the light of God’s love, and in so doing, help the whole human family seek to fulfill its destiny in loving and being loved.

Dave Andrews

Numbers refer to pages in The Quest by Eugene Peterson Zondervan Grand Rapids 2000