"No one is me, and that is my strength."
Project Identity was not really planned. It started from a simple conversation with some friends and grew into an experience I could never have expected. One day, I was with a couple of girlfriends at the gym and we started talking about how people view us versus how we view ourselves. One of my friends made a comment about how she viewed a specific physical appearance of herself. My other friend and I were shocked! We not only disagreed but actually found that aspect of her beautiful. This started the discussion of how people, especially women, often look at what makes them unique as a flaw instead of beautiful. We discussed photo editing, doctored up social media posts and all the things women do to change their appearance. Selfies have created the opportunity for as many re-takes as needed to get that perfect pose. You know, the one that makes you look small where you need to but give your figure a boost? Hair and make up not on point? It's okay, we can add all that in after the picture. What are we doing? Why do we go to such lengths to change ourselves?
Our world has become so obsessed with trying to achieve the perfect image. It seems everyone is trying to look like everyone else! I've had many conversations with women between 15 and 40 and found every single one had "flaws" they disliked about themselves. I don't exclude myself from this. I realized that I too had become so consumed with editing out my aging imperfections before posting. I'm not saying make up, photo editing and such are completely bad. But at what point are these things affecting us? What hurt me the most was to hear how their unique qualities were overlooked or even thought of in a negative way by these women. Things that I and others had found beautiful, they actually disliked!
So, I thought what if we did a little photo shoot, make up free and focused on natural qualities as well as uniqueness. I wanted to make a point that uniqueness is beautiful. They were on board! During the shoot I began to ask them what they loved about themselves and what they saw as flaws. I attempted to capture both in a beautiful way in hopes that they would see what I saw as God's beautiful creation. After taking the pictures and thinking about these women, I decided to talk with their closest friends and family, asking them to give me a word or two that describes each of them. My thought was that their beauty is NOT only skin deep and I wanted to include that. It was a last minute addition that ended up having a much larger impact than I expected. With permission, I posted the results on Instagram and shared the experience. It was not easy for them to complete this part and found it exposed more areas of vulnerability. I saw how this simple experience affected my friends and I. It caused some uncomfortable moments as we faced "flaws" but began an identity adjustment as we saw and heard the words spoken over us. It created new vision and determination to love ourselves wholly. That's when I decided to invite other women to do the same and created the Identity Project. Ten women stepped up and allowed themselves to be vulnerable, sharing their insecurities with me. Each photo session I asked them to tell me a few things they loved about themselves and a few they did not. It quickly became more than just a photo shoot. I asked the Holy Spirit to help me see what needed to be captured, what conversations needed to happen and to help me take pictures that showed these women their true identity.
At the conclusion of the project we ended with a group photo shoot and dinner where we discussed what the project meant to each of them. There were tears and laughter and only then did I fully see what God had done in this simple project. Many of the women shared how they felt surprised by the words people chose for them. Some even admitted that it took some time to embrace and accept these attributes but have now come to see themselves as such. There were different generations sitting at one table, encouraging one another. At one point I sat back in awe as I listened to each woman not only express what she had learned but they began to speak the truth of their identities out loud. TRUTH was being spoken and the lies were breaking off of their identities.
"For we are God's masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago." Ephesians 2: 10
So, what did I learn from all of this? The enemy is a liar. He does it subtly and quietly in our ear but when we come together and speak out our insecurities, we find strength! There is such encouragement in finding that others too feel the same way you do. Shame, pride and insecurities keep us silent. The biggest take away for me though, was to realize how much we need community. People who will remind us who we truly are! We need to remind others often that God made them perfect and for a purpose. We need to speak the truth to battle the enemy's lies. Let our words be louder and heard more often!
Could you imagine what the world would be like if we encouraged each other to embrace our uniqueness and saw it as a strength and not a weakness? We can never be someone else better than they can, so either we spend our lives working hard trying to be someone else while accomplishing mediocrity, or we embrace who we are and accomplish what no one else can.
"Don't copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God's will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect." Romans 12:2
God loves you, sees you and has chosen you for a purpose that only you can fulfill. We may never fully embrace every aspect of ourselves. Finding flaws just comes too naturally. But we can overcome by staying connected to our identity giver! God reminds us that he made us exactly as we are. We ARE beautiful inside and out just as he created us to be. The world will continue to lie to us and try to make us feel less then. But our identity does not lie in this world! Embrace your uniqueness and see yourself as God sees you!
"Even before he made the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in his eyes." Ephesians 1: 4
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