Why Don't We Like Ourselves?

Why Don’t We Like Ourselves?

Have you ever doubted yourself? If you answer “no,” there’s a 99.9% chance you’re not human. Just saying. When you’re a kid, you dream and pretend to be what you imagine to be the definition of the perfect life. Your young mind is unhindered in what you believe you can do and be. It’s a beautiful innocence that is viciously trampled to death as reality comes crushing into your life.

Thanks to social media and the ability to immediately broadcast every second of our daily lives, our identities have never been more under attack. Past generations only had their neighbors to envy. Today, the entire world could be that neighbor, just with one quick visit to your favorite social media account. This social media onslaught, partnered with the crumbling social and psychological foundations of society, have ushered in a whole new growth spurt for the imposter syndrome.

What is “the imposter syndrome” exactly? It is “a collection of feelings of inadequacy that persist despite evident success.” (source) You know when an opportunity to move up another rung on the ladder presents itself and you spend hours or days thinking of all the reasons why you can’t go for it? That’s the imposter syndrome, a culmination of allowing outside influences to define who you are on the inside.

Dealing with the imposter syndrome is not a terminal diagnosis. But it’s not an easy recovery process. Allowing the imposter syndrome to have such control over your life is an indicator of an even bigger problem: not knowing your own identity.

“How can you believe, when you receive glory from one another and do not seek the glory that comes from the only God?”

John 5:44

Being an audience to such a wide array of identities is a huge test of our self-control and faith in the idea that we are all given a “perfect life” in Christ before we are even born. And that test is one that many of us are failing. Join us this month as we learn how to shut out the noise and misguidance of the world, and seek out the only opinion that matters: God’s.