It's the Name!

Eight year old Mickey Hicks is a cub scout from Clifton, NJ.  And he looks like an eight year old cub scout (especially when wearing his cub scout uniform!). But every time Mikey and his family fly anywhere, Mickey gets a full "pat down" as part of the security screening process. Here is what Mickey's mother recently had to say about Mikey's ongoing airport security hassles (he's been "patted down" on a consistent basis since he's been two!): "Up your arms, down your arms, up your crotch — someone is patting your 8-year-old down like he’s a criminal. A terrorist can blow his underwear up and they don’t catch him. But my 8-year-old can’t walk through security without being frisked."

Why does Mickey get all this unwanted attention? It seems that he shares his name with a "Michael Hicks" who is one of 13,500 individuals on the Transportation Security Administration's "Selectees" list, placed there due to being a security risk. This has prompted a security alert every time that Mickey  has shown up for airport screening (I myself got caught up in this same process three years ago on a return trip from overseas. I was pulled from the immigration line and forced to go to a secondary screening area. When I asked the agent the reason, she relied, "It's your name."  Hmm, I wonder how many "John Smiths" are on this list!). So I guess as long as Mickey bears the same name as one of the 13,500 individuals on the T.S.A.'s selectees' list, he will have to put up with all the hassles that come from bearing the same name.

For those of us who have chosen to follow Jesus Christ, we bear His name (as I mentioned in my post of yesterday). And because we bear His name, we can expect to be hassled. Jesus Himself said as much. In John 15:18-19, Jesus said, "If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first. If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you."  The apostle Paul echoed this same truth when he wrote in 1 Timothy 3:12, "In fact, everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted."

So if you bear Jesus' name, you can expect to be hassled. And if you are never hassled, perhaps you aren't living your faith as you should be. Now there's a thought to chew on.

Thanks for stopping by . . .

pj