Identity Crisis

We live in a world gone mad. Somehow, all of a sudden, we can’t figure out the difference between a man and a woman. Today we can tell someone that we’re a black woman or an animal when neither are the case and can totally demand that we need to be treated as such. Who/what you identify as is all the rage now. You can identify with someone/something different every day of the week and if people don’t agree, well, they are the bigots.

It’s a convoluted, disturbing and confusing day to live in. And very sad. We’re all searching for an identity. We don’t know who we are but we totally expect people to treat us as if we do.

Am I the only one that wonders how a little girl playing with Barbie dolls can decide that she needs an eating disorder so she can look like Barbie? Aren’t we all smart enough to know that dolls are never realistic so looking like a doll is an unrealistic endeavor? Yet there are groups of women out there championing the decision for Mattel to make a more realistic Barbie to avoid body shaming. Really? Are we so insecure that seeing a thin mannequin in the mall can send us spiraling into self-hate? That not seeing someone “like us” makes us feel like we don’t belong?

How in the world did we become so fragile as a society?

Since the dawn of creation there has been bullies, but now coping has turned into self-harming, suicide and shooting up schools or places of employment. I’m not justifying bullying or saying it can’t be horrible – especially with the internet – but how is it that our ability to overcome these challenges are at such a low?

I believe it’s because we have an identity crisis. We don’t know who we are.

We started telling people they were accidents of nature. The next step in evolution. There was no purpose or point to living – you simply returned to dirt when you died. We reinforced that premise by killing the unborn if they were inconvenient to our lifestyle or had a disability. We told the old and sickly that they could do the “right thing” by ending their life and freeing society from the burden of their care. Life was dispensable because life was without purpose.

We stopped telling people that they were made in the image of God. They were fearfully and wonderfully made. They were designed with purpose and a hope. We stopped telling people that God loved them so much that He sent His only Son to die so He could lavish His love upon them intimately and without separation.

Is there any wonder why everyone is on their bullhorn, yelling for their 15 minutes of fame, “Look at me! Aren’t I special?” Or doing ever increasingly weird and destructive things to their body?

Could you shame or bully me if I already knew I was special, important and loved by God? Would I feel the need to belittle and criticize others if I knew God felt the same way about them? Would I need to be in the spotlight if I knew God saw what other didn’t and was faithful to reward me? Would I feel the need to identify as something I’m not if I knew God made me the way I already was for a reason?

Identity – our true identity – is so critical to how we view ourselves and others that I am certain that it is a key target of Satan. I’m sure I’ll touch on this topic again because I believe so much of what we see in society today is simply someone’s cry for significance.

Are you feeling lost today? Worthless? Shamed? Find out how your Maker feels about you first. Open the Bible and read scriptures like Psalm 139 and  Jeremiah 29:11. Let them sink into your psyche and give you solace from the harshness of the world.