Have you ever noticed how, at least in movies, people will use something they’re facing as their supposed middle name? Someone will tell them it’s going to be dangerous, and they respond with, “Danger is my middle name.” I don’t know how this got started, and I don’t really care enough to look it up, but it does seem strange and normal at the same time.

By using that word as part of their given name, they are saying that they’re not afraid. To mix cliches, they eat that stuff for breakfast. That is something we’d want to convey. We want others to know so that they are either impressed or so that they don’t worry. We want to know it so that we can convince ourselves to face the problem. Though somewhat noble, I think there are flaws in the plan.

Why don’t we be honest with ourselves and use other words as a middle name. Here’s one that fits me, doubt. I face doubt a lot more than armed criminals. I don’t know anyone that doesn’t doubt something. Some others could be apathy, arrogance, self-centeredness, anger, and the list could go on. I don’t see any of those words making it into a movie scene.

That would be truer to real life though.

As for the flaws:
it’s almost always a lie, danger isn’t a common name.
courage and lack of fear aren’t the same
if you have to convince yourself, you have doubts, too.

I realize that this is really just nonsense. It is just a line used for effect. However, I think if we would look at the attitude behind it, we practice it quite often. We want to convince others that we have it all together, we want to convince ourselves. When we take our eyes off Jesus so that we can look at ourselves, we starting veering off course. When Peter looked at the water around him, he began to sink; he took his eyes off Jesus. The great part is that Jesus reached out and grabbed Peter. Jesus was right there, and He is right there with you and me. Even when we care about ourselves only, He still loves us.