Make All Things New

There’s a guy in our neighborhood that is quite a sight to see (well, I guess there are quite few people in the neighborhood that are quite a sight to see — myself included on many occasions). This man is a crossing guard but he is oh so much more than a mere crossing guard. He wears the fluorescent yellow vest and guides the kids safely across the streets but to end there would not tell the full story. He also wears a radio that broadcasts the local police and fire activity and walks around as if he is a policeman. He looks out for suspicious people (often waiting to see if they will do anything illegal). When I have spoken with him, he talks with great authority as if he is the one who keeping the streets safe from crime and trouble. He does his job well to be sure, yet he does it with a bit of overconfidence that makes it humorous to observe. Just this morning I saw him single handedly stop a huge truck by raising his hand with all the authority of Moses parting the Red Sea. He really gets into his work!

Now, I don’t want to come down on this guy for doing a good job. We should all aspire to work with such vigor. All the same, it is funny to see someone act as though they are something they are not. His job is important and needed, valuable in and of itself yet he still pretends that he is really a policeman, acting as if that were the case. In the process, he seems a bit odd, even ridiculous.

I’ve heard Jerry Seinfeld say that “all men consider themselves as kind of a lower-level superhero.” As if we are really capable of doing things that we aren’t or we don’t have the authority to do. We tend to think we are better, greater and more important than we really are. In short we think more highly of ourselves than we ought to think (and we probably think too often of ourselves than we ought as well!).

In many ways, I’m no different then the policeman-wannabe-crossing-guard. I often think of myself as a better person than I really am. My heart grows proud because I do something good that would please God. Other times I think I am better than I really am because I actually served Jill without prompting. Or I think I am a better because I spend time teaching and praying with my children. While all of these are good things to aspire to be, they become idols when I place my worth and identity in them.

The truth is, if my identity is in my ability to do things to please God, I will ultimately come undone. If my identity is in being a husband to Jill, I will fail her and myself. And if my identity is my children or in being a parent, I will not “train them up in the way they should go.” Making any of these roles as my ultimate identity is in many ways no different from the crossing guard pretending he is really a policeman. On my own, by my own merit, I am unable to please God, love my wife or raise my children. If I make any of those roles my ultimate identity, I am set on a course for failure, disappointment and pain because I am trying to make something I am not define who I am.

But this does not lead me to despair. Because while I struggle with my natural desire to be a “lower-level superhero”, the greatest Hero ever, Jesus, has rescued me from myself – taking my sin and giving me his righteousness. My identity is no longer based on what I do or have done. My identity is the one given to me by Christ. He who knew no sin became sin so that in him we might become the righteousness of God! (2 Corinthians 5:21) If this gospel truth truly penetrates my heart, I don’t have to live or die by how I serve God but rather see that God already loves we and am compelled to serve God because of how great he is! I no longer have think I am only good if I serve Jill well but am actually freed to love her like Christ loves the church because I have experience that love through the gospel. And I don’t consider myself a better person because I teach and pray with my kids but I am humbled and excited by the opportunity to proclaim the Good News to my children and ask God to transform them through his gospel.

So maybe the the crossing guard’s issue isn’t that he is aiming too high in pretending he is a policeman. He just is failing to see that through faith in Christ, through the gospel, he’s could actually identify with something far superior!

The gospel exposes our pretending. It shows us that we’re not as good as we think we are. Yet it also tell us that because of Christ’s work on the cross, we’re actually better than we think we are. We need not try to prove that, we simply have to believe it.