It was about two years ago; I was sitting in my French class at 2 p.m. on a Thursday. There I was sitting in class just working independently on the activity and there is a knock at the door. The teacher walks to the door to open the door and a student comes in with an early release pass. The student then proceeds to call out the students name saying "Brock Montgum", my brain had processed what had just been said, but I was in the zone and still thinking about the leftovers I had for lunch; plus Brock is obviously not my name. Naturally, I just ignored the student who called out the name and suddenly I hear their voice again shouting "BROCK". Not sure why, but I immediately put my hand up and claimed myself as this Brock Montgum. I remember getting in the car that day and showing my mom the release slip and explaining the experience I just had. She laughed so hard and from that day forward I was called Brock, as a joke of course. The nickname was only given special permission by certain sets of people. I did not need the whole school jumping on the Brock train.

Although this has been a joke for quite some time, I never realized the way God was going to use this to teach me something and put a new perspective on this whole experience. This past summer has been one of the hardest couple of months I have ever experienced in my life. Looking back on it I realize it was because I was not as close as I should have been in my relationship with Christ. I felt ashamed about this and guilty but see, that is exactly where Satan attacks the most. He sees that you slipped up, he sees you made a mistake, he sees you walking off the path with Jesus. And what does he do? He tells you that you are not enough, that you cannot try again, that you are too far gone, too messed up, too broken to ever run back to the arms of God. Satan uses lies and pushes all the right buttons to try and take you from the kingdom of God. As my pastor once said, "Satan calls us by our sin while God calls us by our name" (Pastor Tate Throndson 2019). Satan is truly a destroyer and wants us to stay in the pool of lies he is pouring into.

But SPOLIER alert; God ALWAYS wins. God is always pursuing your heart; he so desperately wants a relationship with you. He sees all your flaws, mistakes, slip ups, stumbling off the path with him and he still forgives and loves you unconditionally. We as imperfect people serve such a perfect God and there is absolutely nothing that we could do to ever change the love He has for us. I am a child of God and there is nothing Satan could do to ever take me out of his arms. I am the daughter of the King of Kings and I can ask for forgiveness and start over the next day because I am covered by his grace, love, and mercy. When Satan tries to get me to claim a new name, God reminds me of who I truly am. My sin does not define me and that is not how God sees me. On another note, you must admit being called Brock is pretty funny.