In searching among the many photos of Robin Williams, I’m surprised by my emotion. I’m in awe of this creature of countless expressions and I believe that God mourns his apparent suicide. The Potter of William’s life took such care to shape a vessel for esteemed use. Surely, Williams brought laughter, posed questions and made us think. But what did he think of himself? Could he no longer laugh or find joy because his identity was so precariously unsure?
Williams was somebody. And while we can no longer help him recognize his true identity, we can help ourselves and our children.
Our identity is not actor or senator or founder and CEO of Microsoft. Our identity is not Victoria’s Secret model or teacher of the year or Supreme Court justice. All of these are types of vocations or things we chose to do that affect the world around us. Our identity is not heterosexual or homosexual. These are behaviors and ways to grow–or not grow–the family tree. Our identity is what God says we are. To the baptized Christian, He says, “You are my adopted child in Jesus Christ. You are my heir.” Nothing–no, not one thing save our own rejection of this identity–can change who we are in God’s eyes.
Our value comes not from anything we do, but from what Jesus Christ did for us. The Savior of our lives has covered us with His Robe of Righteousness. Now, when God looks at us–even when we’re suffering sin and depression–He sees the treasures for whom Jesus gave all He had. Did anyone tell this to Williams? Are we sharing this truth with family members, neighbors and friends? Or are we reluctant to speak this truth because we, too, are deceived about who we really are?
In her post “Murderous Mendacity of Depression,” Elizabeth Scalia wrote,
Depression is a hissing false witness. It lies and tells someone there is no hope; it lies and declares, “you’re a fraud”; it lies when it warns you to hide your feelings, because people won’t love you if they know how terrified and alone and desperate you feel; it lies and sneers that you’re weak — that you can just snap out of it, anytime, if you really want to; it croons the lie that love is not real, and hope is for suckers; it whispers the most insidious of lies: that your pain will never ebb, cannot be transcended, and has no value at all.
After a while, the pain begins to feel like all you are and all there is: a worthless, pointless void. And when your life becomes just pain-without-end, suffering-without-meaning, tomorrow seems like less a promise than a prison.
When depression wins, it is such a damned tragedy, no matter whether it has carried off a big rich somebody, or an ordinary nobody, because it is the victory of an incessant liar.*
Jesus knows the liar.
He was a murderer from the beginning, and has nothing to do with the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for is a liar and the father of lies” (John 8:44 ESV).
We all hear the hiss of satan. The evil one tempts: “Did God really say . . . ?” The question stirs doubt. In doubt, we put ourselves in God’s place and assume control. After we do what we want and suffer the consequences, the tempter becomes our accuser: “Did God really say He can forgive you?”
Both questions are intended to separate us from the one who knows us better than we know ourselves. The one who calls us by name. The one who promises a future of hope.
It is right to mourn the loss of people who, in darkness or desperation, take their own lives. Then we must ask: In light of my true identity, how shall I live?
Christ Jesus is the one who died–more than that, who was raised–who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 8:35-38 ESV).
* I am appreciative to Sheila Liaugminas
who quoted Scalia in her Mercatornet article of 8-13-14
Can A Person Truly Change?
Posted in Commentaries of others, Faith & Practice, Identity, Life issues, tagged consequences of sin, depression, despair, drug abuse, hope, human dignity, Jesus Christ, liar, new life, prison, satan, sin, thief on February 28, 2013| Leave a Comment »
Yes.
Evidence of change is all around me. For some, change has come with maturity or wisdom gained from experience. Some literally kicked and screamed all the way to a new place in their life where change took them by surprise. Some are being changed through pain and suffering. Others are changing, but only after falling into the darkness of bitter despair.
Travis is one of them. Travis had fallen so deeply into the pit that he could never pull himself out. I believe that Jesus literally reached down into that pit to lift Travis upward. The circumstances in which Travis finds himself are grave. He is serving 20 years in a federal penitentiary without parole. Travis is in a place of shame but, face to face with his Savior, true freedom and dignity are being restored.
What follows is a letter from Travis:
Travis is suffering the terrible consequences of his addiction and sinful ways. He is separated from his family and shamed by incarceration. Although his faith has grown, he is taunted by unbelievers. He has explained to me that despair comes often to visit, yet the mercies of God really are new every morning.
Those mercies recently came through a fellow prisoner. Travis was feeling especially low at Christmastime when, unexpectedly, he crossed paths with a man he had met early in his imprisonment. Travis had befriended that man and encouraged him with words of hope. The man apparently never forgot Travis and, in a moment of darkness, the man reappeared as a ray of light with reciprocal words of encouragement. “You made a difference,” the man told him. “You helped me get through a tough time.” Travis was reminded that Jesus knows just what we need when we need it most.
Travis is painfully aware that Satan, in partnership with his own sinful nature, is a powerful force. Alone, Travis cannot defeat the liar and thief. But, another force is working in Travis’ life. It is the force of love. Forgiveness. Hope and new life. Satan wants to steal Travis’ soul, but Jesus Christ died for that soul. He has already won for Travis the victory over sin and death. Victory is hard to see through the veil of depression and discouragement; even so, I believe that the Holy Spirit has been at work in Travis adjusting his perspective and restoring the dignity of his personhood.
Perhaps prison is the Potter’s wheel where Travis is being carefully shaped as a vessel for noble service. I really do believe that Travis sees himself a different man than when he stood haughtily before the federal judge. As a different man, he will find himself at odds with the world.
In that world, Satan will continue to press on Travis. Satan doesn’t want change. He wants Travis captive to his sinful nature. He wants him haughty. Dependent on self, yet burdened by failure. But, in Christ, Travis is no longer bound to old sins and failures. In Christ, Satan holds no lasting power over Travis.
Travis told me,
Is change possible? God says it is.
“Put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness. Put away falsehood, speak the truth with your neighbor . . . give no opportunity to the devil . . . Let all bitterness and wrath and anger . . . be put away from you . . .” (Ephesians 4:22-32).
Because change is possible, Travis can live as the beloved son of God in Christ that he is. He can leave the filthiness and foolish talk and crude joking behind. He was in darkness, but now he is in the light of the Lord. He can try to discern what is pleasing to the Lord. Expose deception. Be filled with the Spirit. Give thanks. (Ephesians 5:1-21).
Yes, echoes Travis,
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