Michael and I weren’t married long before we started picking out names for our kids. I  told him when we were dating that I wanted 3-12 kids… And he still asked me to marry him! HA! So we had to start thinking well about all these names. My philosophy on naming is this: I want a name that 1.) harbors the Gospel in some way, and 2.) tells a meaningful story about the life of our Family.

Silas Judson Lawing is named after 3 missionaries and one great-great-grandfather.

* Silas *

Silas P. Dennis

Part 1: Michael’s great-grandpa, Silas P. Dennis, was a hard man. He was also incredibly respectable. He survived the Depression and took his family from extreme poverty to great wealth through his own diligent work ethic. Grandpa Silas’s youngest son is Michael’s grandpa. Pop is tough on the outside just like his father, but he has been a ROCK and a steady father-figure in Michael’s life. We love and respect him immensely. Naming our firstborn after Pop’s father is intended to show deep admiration and reverence for the whole Dennis Family.

Part 2: “About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them, and suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken. And immediately all the doors were opened, and everyone’s bonds were unfastened. … And the jailer called for lights and rushed in, and trembling with fear he fell down before Paul and Silas. Then he brought them out and said, ‘Sirs, what must I do to be saved?’ And they said, ‘Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household.’ And they spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all who were in his house.”  Acts 16:25-26, 29-32.

Silas of the Bible is described as a “leading man among the brothers” (Acts 15:22). He is a notable Apostle who worked alongside Paul to spread the Gospel of Jesus Christ. “Apostle” is from the Greek apostolos, meaning “sent ones.” I hope to train into my son 3 key traits learned from the life of this “sent one”: spiritual leadership, a heart for missions and evangelism, and joy in the midst of suffering. Silas and Paul were seized, beaten and chained for proclaiming the power of Jesus, and yet they continued to love those who persecuted them and sing praises to God! I pray that my son will have the same boldness and unquenchable passion for the Gospel!!

* Judson *

Adoniram Judson

The first Baptist foreign missionary from the United States, Adoniram Judson was a model of Phillipians 3:8 — “Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him.” In 1812, at the age of 24, Judson and his new wife responded to God’s call on their lives by sailing to Burma to translate scripture and steward the Gospel in a land where Jesus had not been named. Judson lost his first and second wife and several children to disease, yet he only took one furlough. When he did return (briefly) to the US, he championed the cause of world missions. After an unbelievably hard life spent prodigiously on the mission field, he died at sea of chronic illness.

Pastor John Piper’s biographical sermon on Adoniram Judson–titled, “How Few There Are Who Die So Hard”–was formational in my understanding of and calling to missions. Michael and I both know that we, like Judson, are called to spend our lives to bring the Gospel to places where Jesus is not known–no matter the cost. Our son has been born in the midst of a season of preparation as we logistically move toward responding to this call. We realized when I was pregnant with Silas that he, by default, is also called to missions. Just as Adoniram Judson was given a specific calling by God to glorify Him via frontier missions, we want our son to know that he has a unique calling on his life ordained by God. Wherever we end up, for however long, we want Silas to learn with us from the lives of missionaries like Judson that there is no suffering for the the cause of Christ that will not be met by unending, immeasurable JOY in Jesus. Because Christ is WORTH IT. We have written this into Silas Judson’s very identify.

Adoniram Judson said on his deathbed: “The question, brothers, is not whether we will die. The question is whether the death we die will bear much fruit.” I encourage you to listen to John Piper’s compelling talk on Adoniram Judson at http://www.desiringgod.org/biographies/how-few-there-are-who-die-so-hard (But be careful! You too might be called to missions!!)

* Lawing *

James Michael Lawing, Jr.
Beginning a new legacy!

It might seem obvious that our kid would inherit our last name, but there was actually a choice involved. It all goes back to Michael’s dad. Michael is named after his father, James Michael Lawing, Sr. However, Mr. Lawing’s life story is one of tragedy, addiction, abandonment, and an untimely death. Michael last saw him at age 12, and I never met him before he died in 2010. Beyond the substance abuse and squandering of his parental responsibilities, the most tragic part is that Michael’s dad was not a follower of Jesus. Since Michael did not have a relationship with him, had no contact with any other Lawings, and felt that there was not much to respect about his father, we considered taking on Michael’s grandparent’s name when we got married. The name Lawing felt lonely and dark. However, after much thought and heart-wrenching discussion, Michael and I got hung up on this point: the Gospel is a story of Redemption–taking worthless things and making them beautiful.

We realized that we have the chance to Redeem this name, to raise up a new generation that loves selflessly, embraces responsibility, and lives in the freedom that is only found in Christ! Michael does not come from a long line of Christians–even grandpa Silas never walked with Jesus–and it is truly a miracle the way the Holy Spirit himself revealed Gospel truths to Michael and called him not only to salvation in Christ but to a life of vocational ministry and missions. Our heritage is what it is, and we want our young family to learn from the past and establish a new trajectory for our name that is centered on Christ. Christians are broken, messed up people that are repurposed to bring Glory to God through dying-to-self and fixing their eyes on Christ’s work on the cross. That sounds like us!!!

***

I hope that you are encouraged by these accounts and are led to praise God for how he has worked in the life of YOUR family–the suffering and the joy. May we all use our heritage to propel us into a deeper appreciation of how God reconciles broken people to himself!