Time for the Un-Selfie !
Jan 8, 2014 1949
Taking “selfies” is all the rage. This is where you turn the camera on yourself and take a photo of yourself. Selfies are especially popular when there is something interesting happening in the background, such as someone committing suicide, as in a selfie that recently made the headlines in the New York Post. The key thing is to make yourself the centre of attention. This just goes to show the depth of the selfie-shness of the society in which we live.
But this isn’t about taking photographs. It’s about how your life and my life is going. How is it going? What are you spending your time, your energy, your money on? Is it just one big selfie?
If we turned the camera of our lives around, what would we see? Millions starving for want of food? Millions of girls, women, and boys, doomed to lives as sex slaves? Millions living lives of empty nothingness? And most of all… billions dying for want of the good news of Jesus Christ? Oh yes, we could see these sights and so much more. There is more than enough here to consume the passion and energy of this generation, if we would only take up the challenge.
Jesus did the ultimate un-selfie at the cross. There, He fully turned the lenses of His love outward to a world of hatred and suffering. There, at supreme cost to Himself, Jesus forgave and acquitted the world of its sin, so that whoever believes in Him might have everlasting life? 1 John 4:10 – “Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.” I find that infinitely more attractive than the average selfie!
Most selfies don’t change people’s lives – unless that is, they die of shame because of what they photographed! But if you accept the un-selfie of Jesus Christ, and his un-selfiesh goodness towards you and towards the world around you, I guarantee that your life will be radically changed. It’s time to turn the camera away from ourselves and onto Jesus!
Eliezer Gonzalez
KayumbaD
Jan 8, 2014
Thank you for this touching article. The picture here is true to the reality in most third world countries (it is this reality that challenges the existence of a loving God) and reminds us that the task of the Church is really to be the Church in our world that does not care for the least of these. Bu it is also true every where for many go empty although Christ offered the ultimate gift to all.
Eliezer Gonzalez
Jan 13, 2014
Thank you, David. The truth is that all of us live in an existence in which it is difficult to grasp ultimate realities. The gospel helps us to come face to face with them - about the world we live in, about ourselves, and most of all, about God and what He has done for our salvation.