People often say, “what’s in a name?”  In scripture, there has been great discussion on individual’s names and their meanings and even more powerful is understanding the significance of people’s names changing.

As a kid, I had one of the most misspelled names in school.  As an adult that hasn’t changed much.  I chuckle when I receive emails that are addressed with the correct spelling of my name and yet the salutation is spelled completely differently.  I will admit that it bothers me when people who communicate with me regularly fail to take the time to spell my name correctly.  Sadly enough, I was married to someone who in the final stages of the marriage spelled my name incorrectly.  What a crushing blow for me.

DYWUANA- 7 letters.  My mom had such good intentions she explains-pregnant with her 3rd child after having two boys whom she purposely had begun their names with the letter “D” and although this 3rd child would be a girl, she insisted the pattern continue.  As an English professor at a Community College in Mississippi at the time, she and her class were in the midst of Romantic Literature. The focus on Don Juan awakened her creative juices as she began to analyze how she might use the phonics of Don Juan to create something special for me.  D- she’d keep.  Juan- didn’t quite work for her so she’d drop the “J”.  She knew she’d need an “A” at the end to make me feminine.  So she’d create the inner parts “yw” just because she could and there you have it-  DYWUANA  birthed from her studies with her added creative twist.

This may explain my fixation on “love stories” and my love for Mexican and Italian food.  But it somehow conflicted with my struggles in relationships. I decided to take a look at Don Juan and what I found was actually quite disturbing.  Don Juan was a womanizer.  A French author says this about Don Juan, “I have seen nobody on the stage who has been a more interesting Character than that compound of Cruelty and Lust”. Per Wikipedia-in Spain, the first three decades of the twentieth century saw more cultural fervor surrounding the Don Juan figure than perhaps any other period.

I’ve learned of many religious implications of this Don Juan figure from which I was named. The Don Juan legend discusses the theological question of the Act of Contrition, through which those who regretted their sins before death, would automatically receive salvation.  In the Italian version of Don Juan women are de-valued and these societal views are a direct source for his behavior. Matter of factly, Don Juan’s focus was on quantity over quality of women and his actions resulted in the dishonor of not only women but the entire family of those who were unable to remain chaste until marriage. Thank God there is a theme of sin and redemption as Don Juan is first viewed as an evil man for his ability to manipulate and seduce women, but later repents of all his wrongdoings.

Wow!!! Learning all of this showed me that there is a lot of power in a name.  While I took on the romantic desires of my mom’s intentions of my name, I seemed to constantly attract the Don Juan’s of my era.  Wow!!!

Recently, I had a conversation with my mother and she said at times, she’s regretted giving me this name because so many seemed to have trouble with its spelling.  As we’ve both grown in our faith walk, we’ve realized that my name is purposeful, unique and exactly what God needed it to be for such a time as this.

Thanks be to God, I have a Savior, who is willing to meet me at the well like the Samaritan Woman and offer me Living Water.  Today I fully embrace my calling to do like she did-to run and tell others to “Come and see a man who told me everything I ever did!” (John 4;29)  I will travel near and far to tell them, “The time is coming when it will no longer matter whether you worship the Father on this mountain or in Jerusalem. The time is coming–indeed it’s here now–when true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth. The Father is looking for those who will worship him that way. For God is Spirit, so those who worship him must worship in spirit and in truth.” John 4:21-24

I’ve known for awhile now that God was calling me.  I ran for fear of judgment, fear of ridicule, fear of rejection.  Interestingly, I realize that I still received all of that along with God’s punishment for my disobedience.  Unlike, Abram or Jacob or Saul, I don’t receive a complete name change.  I embrace the salutation that He spoke to me months ago and I will evangelize the “Don Juans” (male and female) of this world.

I ask for your prayers as I continue to perform the work my loving God has called me to do.