What's in a Name?

image from here

Four years ago, I started a blog.  I wasn't overly serious about it at first, and so when I had to choose a URL for it, I picked something that was an inside joke.  Over the years, the site has grown in content and popularity (it just passed 30,800 hits) and my fondness for this hobby has reached the point where I hope to continue for decades to come.  Thus, it was time to address the name.

Names have meaning.  From personal names to labeling objects, we take names quite seriously.  It was therefore important that my blog's name reflect something important.  The old name ("overlord musings"), as I said, was a joke.  Some colleagues in my last job needed direction one day, and I told them that I'd be happy to be their "supreme overlord."  I'd refer to myself by that title (always in a joking manner) from time to time, and "overlord" popped into my head when it came time to name the blog.  Hence, overlordmusings.blogspot.com.

As years have passed, I've given my blog link out to many people.  I always had to explain the URL after giving it, and so it was time to change that.  My new site- "notes from the fallen"- means something to me.  "Overlord musings" implies that I am (or think myself) above others . . . "notes from the fallen" more accurately describes my station.  I'm a fallen man, as described in the Bible.  I routinely break the two greatest commands- to love God with all my heart and my neighbor as myself (Matthew 22:36-40).  In truth, I inherently love me more than anyone or anything else.  Hence, I am fallen, and this new URL reminds me of that.  I need the Lord's grace to have any hope.  He has granted that to me through His son, Jesus Christ.  I am therefore redeemed in Him.  So "fallen" is not the end of the story- but it remains a part of my current state this side of glory.  I am fallen but redeemed.  I hope acknowledgement of both are evident in my writings.