I began the day anticipating the work I was about to do. I chose what to wear and then trusted my GPS to find my group, which took me to the wrong location.
This being my first time, I had no idea what to expect as I stepped onto Central High School’s campus for the Life Remodeled project. Life Remodeled is about transforming people and the city. My small part included cleaning up several abandoned lots.
I’m aware of Detroit’s history, the blight, the brokenness, and the fears. What I was not prepared to experience was the deep cry for identity.
Once the work began, what caught my attention immediately was the local shouts of “thank you” and “we are so glad you are here.” With our group leader and our tools, our small band of workers traveled from house to house working and meeting people. We talked with residents and laughed. Once we were offered cookies! One longtime resident shared a sad story of how her block lost its identity over the years, and that it was nice that we were there to help.
And then it struck me—we weren’t there just to reclaim overgrown yards but to reclaim identities. At the core of the work was the identity of the people. To rediscover one’s identity is a deep desire of the heart. Perhaps the brokenness we could see in the abandoned homes was tied to the longing of the hearts of the people for true identity.
Identity and redemption are intimately related. For example, Jesus asks all of us, “Who do you say am I” (Mt 16:13), while the Father clearly states the truth, “This is my beloved Son” (Mt 17:5). Loss of our identity was center stage at the Fall. At that moment, we traded our true identity, that we are sons and daughters of the Father who loves us completely, for a lie, a false narrative about the Father and our relationship to him. Without our identity in the Father, our souls are like abandoned houses, havens for crime, warfare, and death.
What I was hearing in the cheers of “thank you” as we worked was a deeper tie to a shared dignity and a desire for restoration that belongs to Christ alone.
In his pastoral letter Unleash the Gospel, Archbishop Allen Vigneron references identity eleven times. Relative to the desire of all hearts, the archbishop writes:
Every human being, even if they are not aware of it, longs to be known and to be loved unconditionally. Everyone yearns for authentic happiness. Everyone wants to be secure in their identity, to be fulfilled as a human being, and to matter to others in some way. God himself has placed these desires in the human heart, and they can ultimately be fulfilled in Christ alone; anything less will fail to satisfy. That is why we who belong to Christ can never cease to propose him to those who do not yet know him. Jesus Christ is the desire of the nations, and his Gospel is the answer to the deepest aspirations of the human heart.” (3.3)
I thought I was just going to help clean up yards and participate in social justice outreach. However, the real work was taking place in the heart, mine and theirs. I learned that proposing Christ, which leads to the discovery of one’s true identity, is the ultimate social justice.
I began that day at Life Remodeled choosing what to put on and where to go. It became clear that what I should always put on is Christ, my identity, and that the Lord is in charge of our meeting place and the work is always to “unleash the Gospel.”
