What’s In A Name? - Sojourner Truth

1797–1893

“What’s in a name?” That famous question from Romeo and Juliet is one many people think about. What does my name mean? Does it fit me? For Isabella, born into slavery and treated harshly for the first three decades of her life, her birth name was no longer meaningful after she was freed. So she changed it.

As a slave in New York State, Isabella had endured all sorts of difficulties. She was beaten by an angry master when she became pregnant by a slave on a neighboring farm. Forced to marry an older slave from her farm, she gave birth to four children. After one of those children was sold illegally and sent to Alabama, Isabella escaped. She found refuge in the home of a kind white couple who paid her master to allow her to work for them, but as a housekeeper and not a slave. In this home, she became a Christian.

New York was in the midst of a long process of emancipating slaves. In 1827, Isabella finally won her freedom. She actually went to court to get back her son, and she won.

After serving in several homes as a housekeeper, she found a new career path in 1843. “The Spirit calls me, I must go,” she told her friends. Taking on her new name, Sojourner Truth, she became an itinerant preacher, traveling the country promoting abolition of slavery, women’s rights, and religious understanding.

The new name fit her. She was sojourning in the cause of truth. The slave Isabella was gone. The preacher Sojourner Truth, a new person called to serve God and tell others about the gospel, was born.

Have you ever thought of what your name would be if you could change it to one that fits you now? In the Bible, people’s names often reflected their characters. If they weren’t given those names at birth, they took them on later as nicknames (like Peter the Rock or Barnabas the Encourager).

Based on your strengths, your personality, your experiences, and what God has done for you, what name would you pick for yourself that reflects who you are now?

The nations will see your righteousness. World leaders will be blinded by your glory. And you will be given a new name by the LORD’s own mouth.

Isaiah 62:2