Today I want to write about a man named Dave. You will probably never meet this man, and I will probably never see him again, but the wisdom he shared remains the same. I met this 60-year-old saint during a Fall retreat this weekend, and some of the things he said, I will remember for a lifetime. Introducing himself to our community group, he didn’t say much about himself, but I immediately sensed that he had the spirit of Christ in him. You wouldn’t think a high-schooler, 2 college students, a grad student, and a 60-year-old would get along well, but as we dove into the scriptures, we found that we had more in common than we had previously thought. We began to discuss the idea of “becoming” a new creation in Christ. As we discussed, he began to tell stories and use illustrations to express how we become a new creation.
He told the story of a shabbily dressed boy who is adopted and given new clothes, but these clothes are too big for him. They belong to him, but they don’t fit quite right. However, over time the boy grows. He keeps growing until one day, the clothes finally fit right. Dave compared this to life as a Christian. When we accept Christ, we immediately take on a new nature. This godly nature now belongs to us; it is who we are. Yet many times, when we sin, we may feel like our godly nature doesn’t fit right- it is almost “too big” for us. Nevertheless, as we grow in Christ throughout our lives, we will eventually grow into the place that godliness is so natural that it is like a suit-coat with the perfect fit.
Then he used an example from the movie Hook to explain “becoming” in another way. In the movie, Peter Pan becomes a lawyer and has a family, over time forgetting his identity as the fun-loving child who didn’t want to grow up. Returning years later to Neverland, he was faced with a formidable task: remembering how to be Peter Pan. He struggles for some time until he has an encounter with one of the lost boys. The boy looks deeply into Peter’s eyes and recognizes the real Peter Pan inside of him, calling out, “There you are Peter!” At that moment Peter finally recognizes who he really is, and can finally act like Peter Pan.
In the same way, Dave told us, we are much like Peter sometimes. The reason so many people struggle with feeling worthless and weighed down by sin, is because they have forgotten who they really are. When you have been made new in Christ, that old sinful self of yours is completely gone, and it is replaced by new life in Jesus. Sometimes we give into sin, it is true, but it is like we are putting on a mask to hide who god has made us, and when we remember who that person is, we can live naturally out of the life he has given us.
These stories Dave told really impacted me, and transformed head knowledge into heart knowledge. It also got me to thinking about how God has wired me to be a storyteller, and what I can do to live into that identity. I aspire to be a “Dave” for other people, illuminating truth in their lives by telling stories that they can relate to. I want to bring the bible to life on the stage so that people can marvel at Christ and what he has done.
So thank you, Dave, for being the mirror in which I saw the person God made me to be!
Soli Deo Gloria 