Look Up.
Identity + Insecurity
Our individualistic, modern American culture says if we want to know who we are, we just need to look within. The problem is: I’ve tried that. And looking at myself isn’t helping. I either find myself consumed with my imperfections or altogether avoiding my flaws.
On the other hand, I have always found it confusing when Christians say, “My identity is in Christ.” What, exactly, does that entail? I want us to dig into this idea together: If Jesus is supposed to be the basis for how we define ourselves, what does it really mean for Jesus to be the Source and Sustainer of who you are?
Over the next ten days, we’re going to gain a deeper understanding of a few ways we’re erroneously seeking to form our identity, and instead, how we can derive our value and worth in our relationship with God. Together, let’s reset our vision on His unshifting nature and find stability in His faithfulness. Set your eyes on His image, and come into alignment with who He created you to be.
For in him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together.
Colossians 1:16–17 niV
Set your eyes on His image.
Approval Over Everything
In 2019, God led me to start @scribbledevos, an Instagram account dedicated to theologically robust devotionals and graphics to accompany them. Young women I knew kept telling me they were stressed, sad, scared, and lonely and that they had no time to read their Bibles or pray. They also seemed to spend hours on their phones scrolling social media. From day one, the goal of @scribbledevos was to disrupt that scroll with truth— to give them a little nudge toward setting their eyes higher.
When I told them about my Instagram account, these young women all followed me, and their lives were changed forever.
Ha, just kidding! I was too scared to share my writing and too afraid for people to have a window into my heart. I kept this side project a total secret for months. What I didn’t expect is that the idea would catch on. It turns out people actually liked seeing devotionals on their feed. They liked the graphics I was scrambling to put together on the fly every day. All of a sudden, I had “a following.”
Allow me to share a small secret: I am an approval junkie. I have spent my whole life trying to ensure that people will like me. If I sense people getting close to discovering my flaws, I put up a wall; better to be admired from a distance than truly known up close. And so, as I followed this nudge from God to create @scribbledevos, I also set myself on a crash course with all of my insecurities and fears.
I was agonizing over typos in my caption, because I was afraid they would made me look dumb. I’d find myself frustrated to the point of tears when I was misunderstood by an angry commenter. I tracked how many followers I lost because losing followers felt like the ultimate failure.
In the social media landscape, we are led to believe that if we don’t have followers, we must be doing something wrong. We buy into the lie that our identity is appraised based on how much approval we can win. We start to believe that our inherent value comes from others’ perceptions of us.
As God has used @scribbledevos to (I hope!) bless other people on the internet, He’s used it to demolish my obsession with others’ approval and my desperate desire to feel like I was worth following.
I hope this lesson saves you from the many tears I cried as I learned it the hard way: I am only worth following to the extent that I point you (yes, you !) to Jesus, the singular Source of life, joy, and peace. My identity is not caught up in others’ approval but in His.
And guess what? Following Jesus isn’t always glamorous and Instagrammable. Following Jesus fundamentally challenges our desire to be comfortable and our desire to be accepted:
“Then he called the crowd to him along with his disciples and said: ‘Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me’ ” (Mark 8:34 niv).
Here, Jesus was teaching His disciples— His followers— about the suffering and rejection He would endure before His brutal execution and miraculous resurrection three days later. Peter seemed to understand what Jesus was saying, and he wanted nothing of it. Mark tells us that Peter actually rebuked Jesus for saying this (the audacity!). And here, friends, is where we get those famous, fearinvoking words from the mouth of our gentle Savior: “ ‘Get behind me, Satan!’ he said. ‘You do not have in mind the concerns of God, but merely human concerns’ ” (Mark 8:33 niv).
Ouch. Following Jesus, it turns out, often leads us down the inherently unpopular path of rejection and suffering. When we fight that reality, we end up positioning ourselves in opposition to Jesus, just like Peter did here. If we need followers and approval to feel good about who we are, we simply preclude the possibility of our identities ever being found in Jesus Christ.
Take your eyes off others’ approval and your follower count— real or metaphorical. Make peace with the fact that Jesus didn’t call you to win others’ opinions, and realize that disapproval won’t kill you. Set your eyes, instead, on the cross Jesus calls you to carry. I bet you’ll be shocked by how many people join you.
TODAY’S READING: MARK 8:31–38 FOR ADDITIONAL STUDY: GALATIANS 1:10
Dear God,
I confess that sometimes I want the approval of others more than I want Yours. I sometimes want to gain followers more than I want to follow You. Help me find my identity in You, not in the acceptance of people. Help me, Lord. Amen.