The Word of the Year for 2023

The Envelope Please

Drum-roll.

The winner of the word of the year is… (Dramatic pause here)

Authentic.

Out of the nearly 500,000 entries in the Merriam-Webster dictionary, the editors of the frequently used reference book selected “Authentic” as the word of the year for 2023. Instead of using public voting to select the word of the year, they attempt to identify a word that captures some important aspect of the previous year.

The dictionary identifies authentic as an adjective, which is used to describe an attribute of something or someone.

Authentic accent.

Authentic pizza.

Authentic music.

Authentic apology.

Based on the word’s definition, when used, it is identifying something as “not false.” When describing a person, it is indicating someone that is “true to one’s own personality, spirit, or character.” Being authentic is typically a desirable quality, since it is then considered “worthy of acceptance or belief.” Some of the common synonyms used for authentic are “genuine,” “accurate,” “true,” “real,” or “original.”

Crisis of Authenticity

Research into why people lookup words in a dictionary has identified two different motivations: words that are troublesome in general or words related to what people are thinking about or interested in at any given moment. Since there is a common set of troublesome words in English, lookup data in a dictionary can provide insight into what people are thinking about at certain moments.

Based on the data from individual word lookups during 2023, there were several words that stood out that were related to current events. The word “coronation” is an example that was popular during the coronation of the now King Charles.

In contrast to the other words on the list, the lookups for the word “authentic” experienced a consistent boost rather than a spike of interest. The constant increase in volume of lookups served as a gauge of people’s ongoing fascination with authenticity over the course of the year. The editor of the dictionary stated that instead of an abundance of authenticity, there seems to be “a kind of crisis of authenticity.”

At some level, everyone desires authenticity, but it is increasingly more challenging to find it. The challenges we face in ensuring authenticity are numerous. The application of Chat GPT has brought into question the academic integrity of students across the country, where teachers could not be sure whether a paper submitted was the authentic work of the student or the response of an artificial intelligence or AI to the assignment. It was the introduction of characters created by AI which prompted an actors’ strike for several months to ensure the authentic use of their own image. In social media, many took the authenticity challenge to “BeReal” by presenting themself without filters, photo editors or the curation used to create the image that we want people to see. On X, formerly known as Twitter, people paid $8 a month to ensure that this was an authentic user instead of a bot posting fake news. Our concept of authenticity was tested wherever we looked last year.

I Just Want to be Me

We are concerned about authenticity in all aspects of our life, from having authentic brand name shoes and handbags, to eating authentic cuisine, to receiving authentic encouragement and criticism. Our desire for authenticity is not limited to parts of our life, we want to live a whole authentic life. There seems to be a universal, innate and deep-seated drive to live with authenticity.

Psychological research demonstrates that authenticity is more than a desire, but an inherent need for living a healthy, balanced, and fulfilled life. Although we have a need to live an authentic life, there are challenges in defining what it means and how to put it into action. It is more than being honest with ourselves and others, because sometimes living authentically means that we don’t put everything on display for everyone to see. Authenticity is more than just being consistent. Although who we are does not change, how we present ourselves in diverse circumstances may be different.

We were created to live authentic lives. We desire to live authentic lives. Research even shows that we actually need to live authentic lives. The reason that we still find ourselves striving for authenticity is that it is about more than what we do. Living an authentic life is intimately related to who we are at our core — our identity. This desired life occurs only when we experience the unrestricted operation of our true core self in every aspect of our life.

There are several reasons that people have and settle for counterfeits. Many people do not even know that they are counterfeit. It seems so close to the authentic that they believed it was real. Some knowingly purchase counterfeits because the cost to own the authentic was too high to pay. There are also some that simply settle for living with the counterfeit, believing that it “does the job” and was enough to satisfy them.

In our drive to live authentically, we embark on a search for our “true” identity. As we consistently ask, “Who am I?” many identities are offered that we can adopt. From our earliest years, we are constantly being bombarded with messages attempting to tell us who we can be and who we should be. Family and society tell us where we came from and who we need to be to fit in with the world around us. Movies, music, TV, magazines and social media communicate messages of the values and priorities that shape who we become. We are told that we can choose to be anything that we want.

The problem is that each of these different identities offered are counterfeits. Just like other counterfeits, they may seem to “do the job” for a while and provide some sense of peace and fulfillment, but it never lasts. We define and redefine who we are in our search for our true selves, but with each additional identity, we are adopting just another counterfeit.

Our True Identity

Through the influence of others and our own choices, we have created an identity from which we live that is a poor counterfeit of our true identity. Now, just like any other counterfeit, we can try to ignore that it is a counterfeit or just settle for living with the counterfeit. Eventually, it will not result in the authentic life that is desired and needed, and the search for another identity will continue, leading to yet another counterfeit.

Although this sounds hopeless, there is a way to find your true identity. The God that created you knows you better that you even know yourself and He knows who He created you to be.

“For you formed my inward parts;
you knitted me together in my mother’s womb.
I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.
Wonderful are your works;
my soul knows it very well.
My frame was not hidden from you,
when I was being made in secret,
intricately woven in the depths of the earth.
Your eyes saw my unformed substance;
in your book were written, every one of them,
the days that were formed for me,
when as yet there was none of them.”

Psalm 139:13-16

Every day that you live out of a counterfeit identity, you live in rebellion to His design and desire for you. He will allow you to continue to create identity after identity, knowing that none of these are best for you and that these will never lead to what you most want.

To live a truly authentic life, you need to allow God to replace your old counterfeit with a new identity. He is the one who created you, the only one that truly knows who you were created to be and wants to restore your true identity to you.

There is nothing that you need to do to earn this gift of a restored and new identity, because He already paid the price that makes this available to you. You do not need to fix yourself or get into a better place, you can’t because of your corrupted identity. You cannot make yourself any better than you are right now. There is nothing that you can do to earn it. It is already fully paid for through the sacrifice of God’s son, Jesus. You just need to be willing to let go of your counterfeit identity and receive your true identity from your creator, God.

This is more than just acting differently or following a list of dos and don’ts. It is not just learning some new information that you just append to the immense amount that you already know. It is not just joining a religion, going to church, and calling yourself “born again.” This is not just an add-on to the life that you already live or to the identity that you already have. It is a full transformation and restoration from who you are now to who you were created to be, changing from the inside out. This is a full reorientation of your life, where everything is seen from a new perspective of living as He designed for you. This is the realization of living the fully authentic life that you have always needed and desired.