Hipsters & Snowmen: An Identity ObsessionHannah Heather - 1 Oct 2015

I recently heard an expression describing today’s teens and 20 somethings (an age group, incidentally, that I am part of) that gripped me...

The expression was ‘The Frozen Generation. 

Yes, Frozen, the glorious Disney animation. But, before you conjure up too many images of sun loving snowmen and accidentally get ‘that song’ stuck in your head (sorry – my bad!), what the speaker was referring to is our generation's hasty and insistent desire to define their identity. To decide who we are and live in the freedom of that choice.

Alongside the liberation and freedom of Frozen’s characters, teens and twenties are being encouraged to ‘break through’ the mould and say exactly who and what they are. We live in a generation where thousands of increasingly young people are living out these discovered identities on social media, making crucial identity decisions from as young as 12.

Whilst the freedom of identity – people feeling safe and able to express who they are – is a wonderful thing, the dark irony of this phenomenon is that it can actually force people to make decisions that, in fact, restrict their freedom of identity.

With such pressure to decide and express exactly who you are, this phenomenon can cause people to become boxed in and trapped in identities that were never truly them.  

Forced identification and self-description due to peer pressure are in fact the opposite of real freedom.

Without the catchy songs and talking snowmen, I believe that the Bible also calls us to ‘break through’ the mould, and Jesus himself calls us to a fundamental shift in identity.

But it's not a forced identification with a certain peer group, it doesn't involve a wardrobe or friendship change. In fact it is completely unconcerned with the externals that society rate so highly, and is radically focused on the core of our being – the alignment of our souls.  

Following Jesus is an invitation to anchor and align our inner world on him so that our identity becomes firmly rooted on being a friend of Christ.  A son or daughter of the King.  And this deep, at-the-bottom-of-our hearts identity bubbles up until it transforms everything about us. 

It is a radical rejection of self-identification.  And a call to understand ourselves in light of who Jesus is and what he has done.  And basing our lives upon that immovable truth is, I believe, the true path to freedom.

If your identity is rooted in Christ, you are welcome to wear hipster plaid and sport a sculpted moustache.  But you most certainly do not have to.  As Christians, we are free to enjoy whatever externals we choose whilst never being defined by them.

At 24-7 Prayer, we are passionate about seeing a generation raise up who wildly, unapologetically stake their identity entirely in the person of Jesus.  That’s why Pete Greig wrote ‘the Vision Poem’ and why we run a training school called the Vision Course.  We spend 5 intensive months each year with radical young leaders from all over the globe, training them up in the ways of the Kingdom and teaching them who they are in Christ.

Whatever it takes they will give: Breaking the rules. Shaking mediocrity from its cosy little hide. Laying down their rights and their precious little wrongs, laughing at labels, fasting essentials. The advertisers cannot mould them. Hollywood cannot hold them. Peer-pressure is powerless to shake their resolve at late night parties before the cockerel cries.

They are incredibly cool, dangerously attractive inside. On the outside? They hardly care. They wear clothes like costumes to communicate and celebrate but never to hide

Extract from the Vision Poem by Pete Greig

As you read this, God is preparing a brand new batch of Vision Course students to make their way to Guildford and start their adventure with 24-7 Prayer.

Could you be joining them? Our next course starts in February and applications are officially open. Further info and application packs are available on the Vision Course homepage. 

If you have any questions about the course or application process, please contact Hannah Heather, our UK Vision Course director at [email protected]

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