Selfie Sunday

Yesterday, as I made my daily rounds through the world of social media, I came across a picture of a girl I knew fairly well. She had recently changed her profile picture to a picture I rather enjoyed so I clicked the "like" button and continued to scroll. Some time later, when I made my way back to Facebook, I saw that my measly one "like" had increased to more than one hundred on that picture alone.

I clicked back over to my own profile to see the number of likes on my current picture. It was nothing in the shadow of the more than one hundred likes that were still rising on this girl's picture.

I suddenly became angry and sad and upset.

WHY.

WHY DO WE DO THIS.

It comes back to a problem so deeply rooted into our society: a love of self.

I realized as I obsessed over the number of likes on a picture of a friend that I hadn't seen in years, I was feeding the self-love monster that followed me around on every social media site I so frequently attended to. That somehow I was worthy of as many likes because of how great I was and how I deserved them and blah blah blah...

This is going to sound rude and crass and harsh but:
IT'S NOT ABOUT YOU.
IT'S NEVER BEEN ABOUT YOU.
(this is me talking to myself too because this is a daily struggle for me)

And ugh, aren't we just drowning in a society of self love? It honestly breaks my heart daily. It oozes out of every word of our "American dream" style way of speaking.
"You should get the white picket fence and the perfect husband and well-behaved kids because
YOU DESERVE IT."

And get this:
This "you deserve it" attitude has even leaked into popular Christian culture.

Here are the lyrics from a well-known song that is often played on Christian radio:

I’m not just some wandering soul
That you don’t see and you don’t know
Yeah I wanna believe, Jesus help me believe that I
Am someone worth dying for

And so clearly, we see a disregard of the truth of the Gospel. We are NOT worth dying for. We DON'T deserve it, our righteousness as filthy rags, and STILL Jesus died for us? Isn't that all the more beautiful than this poppy, poor attempt at a feel good Christian song? And yet, every day, Christians are turning on the radio and this song is blaring through their speakers instead of songs that declare our brokenness and the overwhelming beauty that "while we were still sinners, Christ died for us."

For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die—but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life. More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation. 
(Romans 5:6-11, ESV)

Doesn't all of this misdirection (so far from scripture) just break your heart? 

It should. 

It breaks my heart as I see girls, myself included, obsessing over self-image. I spend too much time on Twitter and I spend too much time making sure I look cute on Instagram and I spend too much time on Tumblr reblogging photos of cool things so people will think I'm cool and I spend way too much time hoping my Facebook status is funny and profound and witty and just all-around great. 

All this time wasted when there is a Creator God who loves me and who longs to be with me: 

Not because I am worth it, but because HE IS WORTH IT.
Not because I am beautiful in myself, but because HE IS BEAUTIFUL and sees me as beautiful because of the blood of Christ! 

{{Women, if the attention you are getting is something related to your beauty apart from Christ, it is not worth your time anyway. It is He who makes you beautiful. (Attention from the opposite sex that does not see Christ's beauty in you is a waste of time.)


Indeed, I count EVERYTHING as loss because of the surpassing WORTH of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith—that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead. (Philippians 3:8-11, ESV)


This new year I hope to spend less time on social media consumed with myself and instead, spend time interacting with my Creator and the beauty He has put in the people and the world around me.