Bundled, scarfed, and cold. Twenty-seven degrees Fahrenheit. A line of compliant humans snaked out the double glass door, spilling into a muddied asphalt parking lot.
Clutching envelopes and files, our group eagerly inched towards the opening where the wonders of central heating would embrace us warmly.
Best guess, 15 appointments still claimed real estate in front of me, but were dissolving quickly. I took another step toward a desk guarded by “the gatekeeper.”
I might call this an unenviable job. Eight hours a day denying and accepting hard working locals based on documents they did and didn’t possess. I’m sure she’d heard every excuse and called names to make a seasoned sailor blush—several times a day. Ensuring things stayed calm, a rather large security guard flanked her side.
“Sorry,” she instructed the man standing before her. “Your utility bill has a PO Box. We need a street address.” “But….but…” A brief protest. “Next!”
“Maam, you need 6 points of ID to renew,” eye-balling the woman’s documents. “Your W-2 is 3 years old. Doesn’t count.” I inched closer. Appointees were dropping like flies. Who could imagine proving one’s identity so difficult?
Department of Motor Vehicles on a Tuesday at 8am. Not an experience I wish to repeat more than once every five years. After months of procrastination, I figured it was time to get my “Real ID”—two months to book the appointment. Today was the day. My anxiety ticked upwards with each rejection.
“You from UrbanPromise?” whispered the gatekeeper as I approached. Startled, I paused. Glancing down, I noticed the embroidered logo on my jacket and mumbled, “Yes maam. Why do you ask?”
“I’ve got two children at the school.”
“What grades?” I quickly queried.
“Sixth and second. Oldest been there for six years. Absolutely love it. Who are you?”
“Bruce Main,” I cautiously replied, passing her my passport, pay stubs, bank statements, electrical bill, and birth certificate.
“Bruce Main….” she paused. Smiled warmly. “Honey, you’re coming with me.” Not words I expected. Enthusiastically, I followed. The gatekeeper now guided me through the DMV labyrinth.
Disney World boasts of Lightning Lanes. To my knowledge, the DMV doesn’t offer the experience. Yet arriving at a special booth, my 6 points were tallied. Nine minutes later, I was back in my car, possessing my Real ID. The day’s remainder would be spent thanking our teaching staff for creating happy students and grateful parents.
Real identity….what is it? Where do we find it? Certainly, my bank statements, W2’s, electric bills, and home address reveal a little about me. But hardly the full story.
Rediscovering our truest identity is the great quest of the Lenten season. Again, we voluntarily engage in a challenging and difficult journey—a journey to expose the false identities, idols, and illusions that have wormed their way back into our hearts and minds this past year. Jesus spends forty days praying, reflecting, and confronting the false promises of new identities. He begins his mission shortly after. Like Jesus, we too enter our own 40-day pilgrimage of reflection, self-examination, and the renewing of God’s fresh calling for our lives.
The late Catholic writer Henri Nouwen concluded that “solitude is the furnace of transformation. Without solitude, we remain victims of our society and continue to be entangled in the illusions of the false self. Jesus himself entered into this furnace. There he was tempted with the three compulsions of the world: to be relevant (‘turn stones into loaves”), to be spectacular (‘throw yourself down’), and to be powerful (‘I will give you all these kingdoms’).” Nouwen continues….
“There Jesus affirmed God as the only source of identity. Solitude is the place of the great struggle and the great encounter—the struggle against the compulsions of the false self, and the encounter with the living God who offers himself as the substance of the new self.”
Real ID has little to do with bank statements, utility bills, and W2s. Real ID has little to do with titles, accomplishments, and degrees. Real ID is the freedom to rest in knowing that being a child of God is enough, liberating our lives to pursue those things closest to the heart of God. “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, you are a new creation. Old things pass away. Behold: a new thing has come into being.” Let the journey begin.