Hi there!
So over the past 2 weeks we’ve been talking about insecurities and anxieties that hit us and cause us to feel “off.” Maybe you feel these things so often that it has started to feel normal for you but the exhaustion it’s caused feels like a heavy backpack you can’t put down.
If you would rather watch this message you can click below or just read on!
I've learned that what's really going on when we get hit with insecurity is that the masks that we've worn to present ourselves to the world are getting challenged. Or maybe we even feel like we don’t know what mask to wear.
Our new boss has no idea how hard we've worked in the past, or what our gpa was. The new guy we're going out on a date with can't see the soul behind the pretty eye makeup and the perfectly planned casual-i-don’t-care jeans look. The new people at the new church have no history to know what a great friend you are and how many things you’re into.
We don't have our well-formed image to prove to the world that we're worth it. The “me” we're so used to people recognizing. We think it serves us well and we feel the discomfort when we don't have it. The problem is that the image, the persona, the mask, doesn’t actually serve us at all even in our long-standing relationships. If the world falls in love with the well-crafted version of ourself then they really don't love us at all because true love loves the whole person, every part, the beautiful and the broken parts.
You might say at this point, Lauren I don’t even know what my masks are. Actually I just feel no confidence. I feel like I don’t have anything to make me special or a standout. In this case, maybe you wish you could wear a mask of success, beauty or confidence but instead you wear a mask of “voicelessness” or “invisibleness.” Try to identify what the masks are for you and name them.
So what does God want us to do? We need to start by identifying the masks that we're wearing (or that we want to wear). The things we use to cover our nakedness and vulnerability. This can be a hard task and something that happens in stages throughout different seasons. We can start with listing our "titles" or the things we use to identify ourselves. Student, profession, friend, daughter, wife, mom, artist, outdoorsy girl, you fill in the blanks. We have to set aside our roles and ask who we really are without those things. God never meant for our identity to be found in our ever-changing roles and interests.
1 Peter 3:3-4 says: Don’t let your adornment be merely outward. Are you using your roles as an “outward adornment” to identify yourself to the world? If so, the moment those roles are challenged, or if we feel like people don’t know about our roles, we start to feel that old insecurity creeping up coming along with it’s best friends, fear and anxiety. Can we sit with God, lay down all of those roles, presenting ourselves in that vulnerable place and receive his love?
Make sure to watch the video and download your free worksheet to help guide you through reflecting on these truths for yourself. Here’s the link to download! https://mailchi.mp/laurenlane/insecuretosurew2