The Hermit Crab

Don’t make your struggle your identity

Have you made your struggle your identity? Are you using your hurts, addictions or insecurities to protect yourself?

Hermit crabs have soft bodies and so they use the empty shells of another creature for protection. At times I have behaved like a hermit crab! 

Feeling fragile and insecure, I used to hide under ‘shells’ in the hope of emotional protection. I put on defensive attitudes such as ‘I’m shy’, ‘I’m not a confident person’, ‘No-one likes me’, believing they would protect me if I was unable to meet others’ expectations. If I already held the view that I was rubbish, then no-one could make me feel more rubbish, could they? That was my thinking!

A hermit crab needs to replace its borrowed shell with a bigger one as it grows. So too, my relatively small ‘shells’ were replaced with bigger ones; ones I didn’t want but didn’t know how to avoid: I struggled with anxiety, never feeling good enough, and then eating disorders. My sense of identity became wrapped up in these belief systems and behaviours. I felt weighed down by the ‘shells’ that I had originally hoped would protect me.

Whereas a hermit crab cannot strengthen its own abdomen in order to live without its borrowed shell, I am thankful that believing what God says rather than what I feel has strengthened my emotional core. I don’t need those heavy shells of the ‘old me’ any longer. 

My identity is now found in being a loved child of God. He is my Protector, and He strengthens me. When I feel shy, it’s reassuring to know that God is with me. When I lack confidence, it helps to remember that God only asks me to do what I can, and not what I can’t. If people choose to be mean, it says more about them than it does about me.

If you’ve been making a struggle your identity, I want you to know it won’t protect you forever. Find your identity in Jesus Christ who loves you and has the power to help you. 

“You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; to be made new in the attitude of your minds; and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.”  Ephesians 4:22-24

“The name of the Lord is a fortified tower; the righteous run to it and are safe.” Psalm 18:10

Father God, Thank You that You are my Protector. Help me to put off the ‘shells’ of self-protection and trust You instead. Please show me the truths in the Bible that I need to believe and help me to believe and stand strong in them. In Jesus’ name. Amen.