Identity Crisis

In a recent discussion with a group of ladies, the topic of a loved one who had struggled with identity was brought up. It hadn’t ended well. Afterward, I took a walk. I prayed. My heart was heavy.

On the way home after my walk, the Holy Spirit reminded me of a time when I was young. I felt like I didn’t fit in. I didn’t like my life. I didn’t like how I looked. I didn’t like me. I would often think that if I could just pretend to be someone else, someone who seemed to fit in, someone who was popular and liked by everyone, if I could just pretend to be that, I would feel so much better. For the first time in my life, I realize what the enemy was doing. He was attacking a young girl who did not know her identity in Christ. A girl who didn’t want to be who she was. I’m realizing I was on a slippery slope of hating who I was, wanting to be someone different. How dangerously close I was to allowing the enemy to get his claws into me. He was whispering to me, but I didn’t recognize his voice. These sounded like MY thoughts. That’s his deception. I am thankful that I will never know where that could have led me.

Fast forward to a world full of instant gratification, social media, knowing everyone’s thoughts (good and bad). So many voices. I imagine there are many young people today hearing the same voice I heard. Only now the voice doesn’t say you can pretend to be someone else. This voice says, “You can be someone else; let me show you how. You can change your identity.” But the truth is, you can’t….You can try, but you can’t really change who you are. You can mask it, give it a different exterior, but the core of a person can’t be fully changed. You were created in the image of Christ, knit together in your mother’s womb, created for a purpose. The enemy wants nothing more than to confuse you, to torment you, to make you angry, to keep you from your God-given purpose, to make you feel empty, to make you his.

So many in our world are in an identity crisis. We need to spread the love of God and the word of God so that all have an opportunity to know who they are in Christ, to know who God created them to be, to know they are loved, chosen, beautiful, created for a purpose, victorious, saved, sealed, and the list goes on. Knowing our identity in Christ can save us from erroneously trying to change who we are, a thing we can’t just come back from. I see so many making permanent physical changes in an effort to change their identity. Knowing my identity in Christ has changed me and changed how I see myself. I pray you also see yourself as God sees you.