Letting Her Go

We know that our old sinful selves were crucified with Christ so that sin might lose its power in our lives. We are no longer slaves to sin. For when we died with Christ we were set free from the power of sin.

“I’d like to take a moment to introduce my new law clerk, Julie Brotzler.” Judge Hoolihan made the announcement from the bench to a courtroom of attorneys, deputies, a court reporter, and other court staff. It was my first official day of my first official legal job, and we were momentarily in between court hearings, waiting on parties to finish a last-minute negotiation.

“Um. Judge? She’s now Julie Fisk. She got married last weekend.” The court reporter’s friendly, matter-of-fact correction had me melting into my chair with embarrassed relief, grateful she’d spoken up. But I was also feeling the extra weight of a roomful of eyeballs considering Judge Hoolihan’s newest law clerk and her new name.

It wasn’t until that slightly mortifying moment that I realized my wedding and subsequent name change meant that Julie Brotzler had done all the work of becoming an attorney—including taking the bar exam—but it was Julie Fisk who would be the licensed attorney. And while I have never regretted changing my name, there was a small part of me that weirdly mourned the timing of my name change, sad that Julie Brotzler had put in all that effort but would never practice.

Years later I realized that my reluctance to let my former identity go in that one particular context sometimes plays out spiritually as well. When we profess our faith in Christ, committing to follow him, we are set free from the sin that ensnared our pre-Jesus life. And yet we sometimes trip back into our old patterns, tricked into thinking sin still has us tangled up, believing the lie that we can’t get out.

That’s not what God intended when his beloved Son died on the cross. Our new identity is an undeserved gift, freely given, and we must gratefully abide in the truth that sin no longer holds us hostage rather than wallow in old ways.

Julie

Today’s Act of Gratitude

If you haven’t yet accepted Jesus’ gift, it’s never too late. And if you find yourself wallowing in that past self, let her go, thanking God for the precious gift of a new identity.