An Identity Crisis

“In a world you can be anything, be yourself.” -Etta Turner

This quote has been one of my favorites for a very long time, because the easiest thing not to be in our society is yourself. From a young age, we are told to be skinny, tall, bronzed, beautiful women but in reality some of us are curvy, short, pale, average people. The problem with society and these words being thrown at us is, once you’ve heard them enough, you start to believe the lies.

The lies of not being good enough or adequate enough. Your identity stems from those things; beauty, status, wealth, and fame. Our world is continually having an identity crisis. No one knows who they are, what they stand for, where they belong.

Things used to be black and white, now everything is grey.

When I entered college, I remember trying to figure out what kind of person I wanted to be. I didn’t want to be the goody-two-shoes I had been for so long so I set a course that would help alter that image.

Luckily, the Lord had other plans. During my first semester in college, I was pretty lonely. My major was difficult, I didn’t have any classes with anyone I knew, and making friends was not easy I remember asking the Lord why he had brought me to this university. Was it to feel this type of loneliness and isolation?

The loneliness was nothing I had experienced before. In grade school, I was constantly surrounded by people so I never had a moment to feel alone. But in college, with all the free time in the world, I really wasn’t sure I was going to make it by myself.

In the times that I was the loneliest, I remember crying in my dorm asking the Lord to make himself known. If he was real to be near to me. To show up at my point of need.

And guess what?

In those times of desperation, God showed up. When I had no one else to turn too, the Lord became near and he held me. As I communed and rested in his presence daily throughout that year, the one thing the Lord kept saying over and over again was “You are a Masterpiece”. It didn’t make sense to me as to why that was the phrase repeated.

As I asked for clarification and discernment, my mindset completely changed.

A few characteristics of a masterpiece that was revealed to me…

1. It’s one of a kind

2. It can’t be replicated

3. The artist uniquely handcrafted it putting time, effort, blood, sweat, and tears into it

4. It’s basically priceless (it can’t be bought)

5. But lots of people are willing to pay big bucks to see it or experience its greatness

6. Once you’ve encountered a masterpiece, it is unforgettable

As my eyes were opened to what the Lord was actually saying to me, I became awestruck. That is what the Lord thought of me. He thought I was priceless and one of a kind. I was made to be seen and heard; to be put on display for the entire world to see.

The thing about a masterpiece is that it is unique unlike anything else. It stood on its own. The Lord was telling me that I could stand on my own. I didn’t need to be like anyone else. I didn’t have to look, act, talk, or be anyone but myself.

To see myself as anything less than a masterpiece would be a disgrace to the artist himself aka God.

My mentality of not being good enough or pretty enough was telling God that he didn’t make me perfect. That he made a mistake when he formed me in my mother’s womb. I realized I had been insulting God for quite a few years.

Jeremiah 1:5 Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations.

The Lord reminded me that my identity was found through Jesus Christ. It was through the sacrifice of God who loved me unconditionally. Whenever God saw me, he saw the righteousness of Christ on me because that’s why Jesus died. To save me from all condemnation and judgement. To make me white as snow and for me to be called a child of God. We no longer have to be slaves to the world and walk in its standards. We get to walk in the standards and fullness of God. Sin no longer has a hold on us because Jesus saves! He died to give me an Identity in Him!

John 1:12 To all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God

Romans 6:6 For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body ruled by sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin.

It didn’t matter if I was short or curvy, the Lord had ordained that. That’s how I was supposed to be! It was okay that I loved shopping and all things pretty and pink yet wanted a big black matte Ford Raptor truck and a dirt bike. It was ok that I loved to hike and go camping but still liked to get my nails done. It was ok that I didn’t go to medical school because I loved to plan weddings instead. It was ok that I didn’t live up to my culture’s standards because I lived up to God’s standards.

I was the Daughter of the Most High King. There was nothing I couldn’t do!

When you think about it like that you realize how silly our earthly thinking really is. Society wants us to believe we need to look like celebrities, magazines, and people who have “made it” in our cultures but really the Lord made us uniquely His. We aren’t made to be anyone but ourselves. We are supposed to be children of the Most High and when we walk in that authority, WOW. Can you even imagine the possibilities?

Can you imagine if you lived every day, every moment as though you were royalty?

How would your life be different?

Would the devil be able to say “Uh oh, she’s up!” every morning you awoke?

When my identity was found in Christ, that’s how I started to look at life. As a world changer. As a community changer. As a life changer. As a woman who knew that her purpose was to glorify God in everything and anything that she did.

So maybe you don’t know what you want to be when you grow up. Maybe you are all grown up and still don’t know what your purpose is.

Well, let me tell you that once your identity is in Jesus, your only mission is to be a child of Abba Father and with that mentality you can do anything you desire. But ultimately you get to do what God desires of you, which is to walk in your royalty and authority.

Because you child, are the Daughter or Son of the Most High King!