Alive Again

Nicole Paulino of Gaithersburg, Maryland, walked into her local DMV to renew her driver's license last month expecting the usual  paperwork and tedious wait ... until she was mistakenly declared dead.

“It then appeared that I am deceased,” Paulino told reporters. “I got a little frightened -- I’m not gonna lie -- and surprised, because I am alive. I’m here.”

What started as a simple clerical error turned into a nightmare. Because Paulino was listed as deceased, she was unable to renew her license that day. Soon after, she received a letter from the IRS referring to her as a “deceased taxpayer.” Next her health insurance was canceled, leaving her and her three children without coverage; she could not even get the inhaler she needed for her asthma.

“This really, really messed up my life,” she said. “It has affected me a lot. It’s affected my health, my mental health.”

Eventually Paulino received a call from the Social Security Administration explaining that the mistake was due to a typo: A funeral home employee had reported someone’s death but had entered the wrong Social Security number -- hers. It was a simple error with profound consequences, and thanks to advocacy and persistence, Paulino was officially declared alive again.

This ordeal is both an administrative blunder and a powerful metaphor: In Scripture, we see stories of people dismissed or left for dead -- sometimes physically and sometimes spiritually -- until the Lord intervenes. In John 11, for example, Lazarus lay in the grave for four days before Jesus called to him, “Lazarus, come out!” In that moment, what was lost was restored, what was broken was made whole, and what seemed final was rewritten.

Many of us have felt spiritually or emotionally “dead” at some point -- buried under the weight of hardship, grief, or regret. But just as Nicole Paulino fought to reclaim her life and just as Jesus called Lazarus from the grave, God offers us new life. No matter what mistakes, failures, or setbacks we face, God is still in the business of resurrection.

Remember Paul’s words in Romans 8:11: And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies because of his Spirit who lives in you. 

If you are feeling buried under the weight of life’s challenges this month, take heart: God is still writing your story. May we live in the confidence that we serve a God who declares us alive -- even when the world tries to write us off.