Last week, a retired pastor in the metro area wrote to the editorial pages of the paper to decry the rampant use of selfies by self-absorbed, narcissistic people in our present-day culture. It caught my attention because the very same thought has occurred to me as well, and I enjoyed that he quoted Proverbs 27: “Do not boast about tomorrow, for you do not know what a day may bring; let another praise you, and not your own mouth – a stranger, and not your own lips.” How true, how true. We shouldn’t be so self-absorbed that we have to constantly take our own picture at every turn, then post it as if to demand that every person pay attention to the chronicled actions of our day-to-day ordinariness!
And yet, only a couple of days before the retired pastor scolded all of us (though with good humor, of course), I myself had tried to take a selfie of the three of us pastors. I wanted to show the congregation that Jeanne, Kristie, and I were a pastoral team, ready to serve and care and offer leadership at Family of Christ. You can see the three attempts in order here in this blog.
The first was poorly done, and the second was even worse,catching only my shoulder. Thankfully, the third one worked,though my dubious expression indicates that I’m not sure this final attempt was successful either. You see, I’m still not sure that a smart phone is all that wonderful a match for me. Its intelligent designs are so much more technologically sophisticated than my own computer-smarts can actually handle. I’m certain my phone sits around bored most of the day because I primarily use it to make phone calls now and then and forget to employ all the other tools it has at the ready for me. I’m sure when the Siris get together to complain about their owners, I’m near the top of the list: ‘He seldom asks for GPS assistance, never wants me to calculate things, and still makes calls by punching in the numbers — that cretin!’
But I digress.
The third selfie worked. So here we are – your team of pastors, promoting ourselves for your consideration. And I have decided to stick up for selfies after all. Sure, some of them are inane records of people’s day-to-day activities and certainly are not worthy of being placed into photo albums. But others are kind of whimsical and fun. Simple ways to say ‘hello,’ and to say we’re having fun or enjoying life or celebrating our day, and we wanted our friends to bear witness to our joy. Yes, yes, I know Matthew 23 says “whoever exalts themselves will be humbled.” But you can clearly see that my photographic skills in no way reveal an attempt to exalt oneself. If anything, they are lucky snaps of the camera shutter — lucky to catch our faces rather than our feet!
“You are beautifully and wonderfully made,” which is a paraphrase of Psalm 139. “God called the creation good,” from Genesis 1. And, “do you not know that your body is a temple?” from 1 Corinthians 6. So yes, take that photo. Revel in that selfie. Let’s see your mealtime celebration. Show us that picture of you with your three cats, or you rollicking in the yard with the dog, or your kids playing in the green grass. Give us that selfie of you out there embracing and enjoying and loving life! After all, Genesis 1 tells us we were made in the image of God. Therefore, our photographs are always beautiful, right? Our photographs celebrate the fact that God made us and we are all of us beautiful creatures!
(But do exercise a little self-restraint — three selfies a day is enough for anyone.)
Let’s see each other in church!
~ Pastor Josh
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