A New Identity

Parents Weekend - Aug 1980

Just a few days after I turned 18, I entered the United States Naval Academy with the class of 1984.  And my life changed forever...

At the Academy, an incoming midshipman is a plebe, whose training is overseen by the upperclass midshipmen.  This begins in July and continues to mid-May.


And a plebe is the "lowest form of life" in Bancroft Hall - the dorm that houses over 4000 midshipmen.

Plebes aren't allowed to talk or loiter in the hallways of Bancroft.  When they have somewhere to go, plebes run down the center of the hall, saying "Beat Army, Sir" or "Go Navy, Sir" at every corner.  And, that's the easy part.

During the six weeks of plebe summer, my identity changed. 

The girl from Kentucky, who got straights A's and watched Kentucky basketball, who liked softball, track, cheerleading, knitting, and writing poetry - that person was no more.  

At first, life as a plebe was about surviving and staying out of trouble.  

But as plebe year continued, and even later...as a midshipman, as a Marine Officer, and as a wife, mother, friend...life became about serving, doing what needed to be done, not looking for praise - even avoiding the spotlight.

And that's the way of any type of "basic training."  A person gets broken down, shown his own weaknesses...and then is given a new identity and a new way of life.

From Reading Romans with Luther by RJ Grunewald:

The chief purpose of this letter [Romans] is to break down, to pluck up, and to destroy all wisdom and righteousness of the flesh. 

From the same book, and quoting Luther:

Christ wants our whole disposition to be so stripped down that we are...unafraid of being embarrassed for our faults and also do not delight in the glory and vain joys of our virtues. 

Reading that, I immediately thought of plebe year, and I realized that Romans is the basic training, "boot camp" letter of the Bible.

Romans shows us our own sin and our own need, and inability to keep God's law.  His law breaks us down.

...as it is written: “None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God. Romans 3:10-11

Even when I read God's law, I can't "will" myself to not sin, and to obey, from my heart.  It's too much, and it's a foreign place to be.

But God makes it His work. 

We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. Romans 6:4

He forgives, shows me His grace, clothes me with Christ's righteousness, and gives me a new heart.

And after showing me my need, giving me a new identity, Romans further shows me how to live and serve others (Romans chapter 13 and 14) with the example of Christ (Romans 15).

To Paul and to Luther, this wasn't dry theology or a self-help manual.  This was life, experienced, thru knowing sin, guilt, and hopelessness...to knowing grace.  A new identity, lived in Christ.