My Uncle Peter is a funny guy; always telling stories, finding the funny side of everything, prompting laughs, silent stares of, 'did he really just say that?', and gasps of 'ooh' and 'ahh'.
The other thing about Uncle Peter is he looks remarkably like the actor, Anthony Hopkins. Now Anthony Hopkins and Anthony Hopkins' daughter probably wouldn't think so, but I'd hedge my bets anyone else walking past Uncle Peter would likely look twice.
And that is exactly what happened when Uncle Peter went holidaying in Singapore.
'No sooner had we set foot in Singapore than a frenzy of crazed Singaporean Anthony Hopkins fans swarmed. The moment we stepped off the plane a man nudged his wife and murmured something to her. She nodded adamantly and suddenly a whole family was bobbing like those dashboard toys on springs.
"Gee, these Singaporean folk are an enthusiastic bunch!" I said to Heath as we joined the customs queue, but as more and more people started pointing and nudging one another, I started to get a bit uncomfortable.
Suddenly this woman rushed over to me and asked me if I was Anthony Hopkins!
"Pardon?" I thought to myself for half a second, before realising what was happening. The whole customs queue halted and there were a hundred eyes on me, waiting for my answer.
"Why, yes. Yes of course I'm Anthony Hopkins!" I said. "That's Sir Anthony I might add!"
"I'd appreciate it if you could sign this please Sir Anthony! My father loves you!" said the woman.
People were sliding under and over railings and before long I was signing notepads and suitcases, hats and shirts, anything people could grab!'
'Didn't you feel bad?' asked my mother when Uncle Peter finished telling the story.
'No! I made their day!' Uncle Peter laughed. 'There's about two hundred t-shirts and hats on display in people's houses with my handwriting on them!'
It has been autographed!
'I will put my laws in their hearts, and I will write them on their minds... their sins and lawless acts I will remember no more.'
– Hebrews chapter 10, verses 16-17.
If you've ever received an autograph, maybe a signed book or some sports team's merchandise, then you know the feeling when an item suddenly shoots up in value in your mind. Suddenly this item is more precious to us than gold.
As Christians, you and I are called to live 'autographed' lives. We have God's law written on our hearts in the form of the Holy Spirit who lives in us.
Despite this we still hold out hats and t-shirts all day long, begging for all kinds of other signatures and names, false and slanderous endorsements which do nothing for our identity, and are valueless. How much of our identity is bound up in what we perceive to be more important than it actually is?
Could it be that just as my Uncle Peter took Anthony Hopkins' place, a thousand other things are claiming the rightful place of Jesus as the real author and finisher of our lives?
I can confidently say I am living for Jesus Christ, but there are still too many days when the first thing I check of a morning is not the 'verse of the day' but Instagram or Facebook.
These actions do not affirm my true identity in Christ; but reinforce what other people are saying, people on a journey just like me, incomplete people: people with the pen but not the name.
We need to experience the real thing, to experience God from the inside out, to remember we have already been autographed and walk it out from there, not the other way around. We are not slaves to our phones, springing to life only when the little red notification circle appears with a 1, or a 2 or a 3.
When the news of sickness and breakdown come, when tears flow and encouragement is needed: this when God's autographed spring into action. Do you need to put away the merchandise and start living like you've been signed?
Pray and cry out to God for help to trust in Him—to turn away from consistently vying for the approval of others and to start living in the knowledge that you are autographed.
Lord,
Let not the first thing I look at in the morning be the signed hat on my bedpost, but the signature on my heart! Let not the signature of public approval taint my appetite for more of you: these things which can not satisfy. Let me operate out of the understanding that I have been hand-crafted and bought with a price. Help me to live as God's autographed ought to live.
-Amen-
David Luschwitz is an Australian teacher currently working in the south of Spain. David is currently working on his book, 'I Have This Hope', available later in the year.
To read more of David's writing and to hear his story head to www.davidluschwitz.com
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David's previous articles can be found at http://www.pressserviceinternational.org/david-luschwitz.html