One Degree to Another
Last week PBS aired Ken Burns’ new documentary on the lives of Teddy, Franklin, and Eleanor Roosevelt. He began with Teddy’s childhood in 1858 and worked through the death of Eleanor in 1962. While many aspects of their life story are worthy of attention, an episode in Eleanor’s childhood caught my attention. Her mother believed she was not a beautiful child and even mocked her looks by calling her “Granny.” Eleanor felt unloved as a child but found an opportunity to remedy that when her mother began to suffer from horrible headaches. She rubbed her mother’s forehead and this was the only thing that gave her mother relief, changing her mother’s attitude towards her. One of the commentators remarked that Eleanor learned she could feel more loved if she was useful.
Aside from being a heartrending story of a young girl who was not loved as she should have been by her mother, this serves as a reminder of the way we can approach finding our identity and significance in life. Aren’t we all tempted to root our sense of significance in our usefulness or in our accomplishments? When you do this, you will deal with pride on the days you believe you are performing well. On the days when you feel like you’re failing, the sting of despair threatens to overwhelm you.
When we find ourselves groping in the darkness looking for something to hold on to for a sense of significance, we need to remember the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Because Jesus died for us and was raised from the dead to give us new life, we can receive an identity not based on our performance, but based on Jesus’ work. The Apostle Paul uses the phrase “in Christ” to refer to the Christian’s new identity. By faith God joins us together with Christ so that we are in him and he is in us. Because of our new identity, God removes the guilt of our sin and declares us to be right with him. He adopts us as his children and promises that we will reign as fellow heirs with Jesus Christ.
A few months ago Ray Ortlund, pastor of Immanuel Church in Nashville, shared about what they call “The Immanuel Mantra.” “I’m a complete idiot, I have an incredibly bright future. Anyone can get it on this.” These three statements stuck with me because they ring so true to reality and to the teachings of Scripture. When I base my identity on my performance, I end hating myself because I can never perform up to my own expectations. However the Bible teaches that I can experience a bright future because God judges me on Jesus’ work and not on my own. The best news of all is that anyone can get in on this. God freely offers the Gospel to us all based on his mercy. Since this is by sheer grace, no one can earn it and no one has gone to far away to be reached by it.
Today, whether it was a bad day or a good day, is the best day to stop letting your days define you. As long you base your identity upon your performance, pride or despair will always be close by. The Gospel gives us a new identity, rooted in God’s work for us in Jesus, that never changes. We can find our significance and satisfaction in him, and in who he has made is to be in him, because of free mercy and grace. Perhaps Jerry Bridges said it best, ““Your worst days are never so bad that you are beyond the reach of God’s grace. Your best days are never so good that you are beyond the need of God’s grace.”
Related Posts:
“17 Quotes That Have Shaped Me”
“What I Tell Myself in Difficult Times”
For Further Reading:
The Discipline of Grace by Jerry Bridges
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