Jonathan

Growing up I remember not liking my name, because it was so common and I always had this desire to be unique.

In grade school I remember there were 2 other Jonathans in my class and I was Jonathan Pa! "Pa" for the first two letters of my last name. The other was Jonathan "Po". Not only was it bad enough that there were three Jonathan's in class, There was another boy whom we shared the same initial of our last name. I didn't like that one bit because in our little cubbies mine would be labeled "Jonathan Pa", not even Jonathan Park, but Jonathan Pa! What the heck teacher?!? couldn't you just add two letters to "Pa"?

Then I got into middle school and high school and there was another fellow named Jonathan Park. I could call him my arch-nemesis in some ways, because we share the same name and were always being compared. At this point Jonathan with the full last name written out would not suffice to distinguish us. In middle school friends would use our physical features to distinguish between us. One was called Jonathan Park "Tall" the other called Jonathan Park "Short". Take a guess which one I was? Yep... Jonathan Park "Short" was me!

Then in high school my height caught up to him and there wasn't so much of a disparity to distinguish each other between "short" and "tall". So people started distinguishing us by another physical feature. There was Jonathan Park "buff" and Jonathan Park "skinny" Guess which one I was? Yep!.... Jonathan Park "skinny" was me!

For some reason we were always compared because we had the same last name, which I really didn't like. I always got the crappy end of the label! But we are worlds apart. To show how different we are, he went to a military college, while I went to art school. I always felt that we were polar opposites. Only thing we shared in common was our name. Funny thing is that at the end of graduation they give a picture from all the grades you attended the school district in the yearbook and my 7th grade picture is a picture of him!

Anyways... now I've gotten to really like my name and proud that my parents named me Jonathan. And also proud to bear the last name Park. More so I understand that my identity is not bound by the name I was given. Although there are thousands of other Jonathan Parks, there still really is only one me. I looked up the name Jonathan and it means "God's gift". I like how Jonathan is a biblical name and I also really like who Jonathan was in the Bible. Jonathan was David's BFF (best fwiend foeevah!) Jonathan could have sought kingship for himself because his father being King Saul would have made him the natural heir to the throne. But Jonathan had a right understanding of God and His will, and helped David escape and protect him from his own jealous father. He had the spiritual eyes to see things beyond merely the physical. He could have sided with his earthly king and Father Saul. He instead chose to side with His TRUE King and Father God.

Some other notable Jonathan's are:

Jonathan Edwards – great theologian in the 17th century during the Great Awakening!
Jonathan Barnbrook – awesome British graphic designer.
Jonathan Ive – Senior VP industrial designer for Apple. (All those pretty Apple products is because of this guy!)
Jonathan Foreman – lead singer and songwriter of Switchfoot.
Jonathan Taylor Thomas – voice of young Simba! (hahaha!)

If you've read thus far... Please blog about your name!

Note to Self:

1. Do not go grocery shopping when hungry.

2. Do not write emails when pissed.

3. Do not listen to John Mayer when sad.

4. Life is Unpredictable.

5. Add to this list.