Hipsters and Snowmen: An identity ObsessionHannah Heather - 11 Aug 2018

With this year’s Vision Course just around the corner, we wanted to re-share one of our favourite blogs from Vision Course leader, Hannah Heather:

There’s an expression that describes today’s teens and 20-somethings that's gripped me: "The Frozen Generation". 

Yes, Frozen, that glorious Disney animation. But, before you conjure up too many images of sun loving snowmen and ice queens, it actually refers to our generation's desire to define their identity: to decide who we are, and to live in the freedom of that choice.

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 young people are living out these discovered identities on social media, making crucial identity decisions and displaying them for all to see.

Whilst the freedom of identity – people feeling safe and able to express who they are – is a wonderful thing, the irony of this phenomenon is that it can force people to make decisions that are restrictive, not freeing. This phenomenon can cause people to become boxed in identities that were never truly them.

Forced identification because of peer pressure is the opposite of real freedom.

I believe that the Bible calls us to ‘break through’ the mould - Jesus himself calls us to a fundamental shift in our identity.

But this is not to look popular; it doesn't involve a wardrobe or friendship change. In fact, it’s completely unconcerned with the externals that our society rates so highly.

It 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. This deep, at-the-bottom-of-our hearts identity bubbles up until it transforms everything about us. 

It’s 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.

At 24-7 Prayer, we’re passionate about seeing a generation raise up who wildly and 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- 6 months with radical young people from all over the globe, training them up in the ways of the Kingdom and teaching them who they are in Christ.

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

Could you be joining them?

Our next course starts in September 2018, and applications close in just a few weeks. Further info and application packs are available on the Vision Course homepage.