From the Pastor
British newspaper The Daily Mail recently reported that an American man who changed his last name to “Null” has started receiving free hotel rooms and car rentals. It seems that the word “Null” is incompatible with a lot of computer programming, leading to many systems not recognizing him as a person. When an employee puts the word 'null' into the surname box on an IT system, the system recognizes the word as meaning 'an absence of data', and refuses to validate it. The result is that Mr. Null isn’t billed for the item he’s bought.
When I first read this story I thought, “Cool, free stuff!” But there’s more to the story. Raven Felix Null told The Daily Mail that he changed his last name not for free stuff but to reflect his estrangement from his family. He chose the word "null" because "it means nothing, meaning I am not connected to my 'family' in any way anymore."
How sad. Here is a young man with such horrible relationships with those who are closest to him that he would rather have no last name than carry theirs. There are countless others who have those same dysfunctional problems as Raven Felix Null does. They just haven’t bothered to change their names. They’re not living at peace with those who should be closest to them.
Sunday we will study how we can make peace with others and maintain that peace. The Apostle Paul summed it up this way:
“If possible, so far as it depends on you, be at peace with all men.” (Romans 12:18)
Think about that,
RB