Cookie (our little granddaughter) got her mom’s camera and actually took a selfie!! What could make an 18 month old take a selfie? Obviously, she doesn’t know she took a selfie, she’s just obsessed with what that little computer in her hand is doing.
Whether you like it our not, we (our culture) loves to selfie. Some see it as a good thing that creates awareness around who we are, while others say that selfies speak to preoccupations with self that can trigger poor self-esteem.
Whichever side you may land on, we love to selfie. We love it because we are obsessed with wanting people to see us, respond to us, validate us and we are told that we need it to be influencers in this culture.
Our selfies today are just our modern day portraits captured in that moment of time with the perfect filter that rewards us in real time with likes and comments.
What it really boils down to though is our obsession with self.
It’s A Heart Condition
Cookie is demonstrating egocentrism, what every baby does naturally in how she sees and experiences her world. That’s normal.
Our obsession with self is also normal (YIKES!) as it is part of our sinful self. These heart conditions go way back and have their roots in pride, which is sin. (Genesis 3)
Pride blinds us to our obsession with self. From egocentrism to insecurity, either point on the spectrum is about self. Pride tells us we are good people or we are not good enough.
Let’s face it. We all want to be liked, seen, loved, heard, wanted, and thought of highly, it is the human condition and it is highly addictive.
I know I feed the addiction. And when I feed it, by trolling all day to see who has liked or commented on my filtered posts, I am traversing the spectrum of pride obsessed with the response.
The Truth of What We Can Do?
We have to recognize there are really two cultures and we have the power to choose. Do we choose the selfie culture of the world or do we chose the dying to self culture that Jesus so willingly died for?
If we apply God’s truth to our “we love to selfie” culture it’s easy to see that there will be a clash of cultures. Dying to self is not natural for us. It takes discipline.
Jesus’ life was the antithesis of our selfie culture. He didn’t have popularity goals displayed by false filters of self or a preoccupation of self and numbers of likes.
He had a preoccupation for what God wanted him to do, which is show us humans how to live, how to receive His grace and truth, and how to place our trust in Him and die to self.
Just like we want followers in our selfie culture, Jesus wants followers in His dying to self culture. Why would Jesus want that? Because when people are willing to die to self, the life of Jesus will be displayed through them.
And when the life of Jesus is displayed through us, His light breaks the darkness of this selfie culture world. That’s a new normal.
How Do We Live The New Normal?
Living a dying to self new normal means we take ourselves off the throne of our hearts. We die to self in our marriages, workplace, community, neighborhoods, churches, schools and in our world.
We become a modern day portrait in this selfie culture of the grace and truth of what Jesus did for us on the cross.
If you would like to become a follower of Jesus and His dying to self culture, all you have to do is confess with your mouth and believe in your heart that Jesus died for you on the cross and you will be saved. Romans 10:9
Excerpt from my upcoming book, Relationship Goals For a Growing Relationship with Christ. For more information on Jackie click here.
Recent Comments