Inner Selfie

I was recently watching a popular comedy programme on channel 4, mainly about cats, I think. There was a celebrity-type woman on and the conversation moved onto 'selfies' and taking selfies. She was being accused of going 'over the top' with the number of selfies she posts. She was explaining in some detail the thought and art that goes into a selfie.

Although I'm merely a novice in such matters, it's clear that when talking a selfie you're trying to create a certain image or perspective of yourself for others to see/ admire/ enjoy. This may be an entirely true reflection of how you actually look or of course it may be just a momentary perspective of how you'd like other people to see you. Whatever.

The word 'selfie' is the Oxford dictionaries' word of the year for 2013. Their definition of a selfie is "a photograph that one has taken of oneself, typically one taken with a smartphone or webcam and uploaded to a social media website." According to the Guardian in November the use of this word has increased by 17000% in the last 12 months. Wow!

According to the Guardian on Tuesday 19th November 2013 (www.theguardian.com), 'the word can be traced back to a post on an Australian online forum in 2002: "Um, drunk at a mates 21st, I tripped ofer [sic] and landed lip first (with front teeth coming a very close second) on a set of steps. I had a hole about 1cm long right through my bottom lip. And sorry about the focus, it was a selfie."
It has since produced an array of spinoffs, including helfie (hairstyle self), belfie (bum selfie), welfie (workout selfie), drelfie (drunken selfie), and even bookshelfie – a snap taken for the purposes of literary self-promotion.
Judy Pearsall explained its evolution: "The hashtag #selfie appeared on the photo-sharing website Flickr as early as 2004, but usage wasn't widespread until around 2012.'
 This is all very interesting and I love the spinoffs although you probably won't catch me sharing a bum selfie, to be honest. What other spinoffs may develop, I wonder? How about this one. It's a chelfie (chin selfie).

Thinking about selfie spinoffs got me thinking about what an inner selfie or heart selfie would look like and how we'd take it. Being as 'helfie' is already in use for a hairstyle selfie, I'll have to call it an innelfie (for inner selfie). Let me explain - it would be a snapshot of our inner thoughts and our heart attitudes and the stuff that goes on below the surface of what can be seen. I'm not sure how you'd create it, but check this out:

There's a great story in the Bible in 1 Samuel chapter 16 where Samuel the prophet is given the task of seeking out the new King for Israel. God sends him to a particular man called Jessie who has eight sons. The first son Eliah comes to see Samuel and he just takes one look at Eliah and thinks "surely this is the man that God wants". He'd obviously been working out and was looking good. But interestingly God says to Samuel, ‘Do not consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him. The Lord does not look at the things people look at. People look at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.’ (1 Samuel 16:7)

So the next six sons are brought out in turn to see Samuel. None of them are right. That's apparently the end of the supply of Jessie's boys until he remembers his youngest son out in the fields looking after the sheep. Someone goes to fetch him and as soon as he arrives God tells Samuel that this is the one. His name is David. Samuel performs the appropriate ceremony to anoint David as the next King.  Although through his life David did some terrible things and made some huge mistakes, he is a man full of faith who loves and worships God and he's described as 'a man after God's own heart'. If we could take an 'innelfie' (inner selfie) of David we'd see a guy that wasn't perfect but one who trusted God and loved God with his whole being. It would be inspiring and encouraging. David is a person who's remembered and honoured. It's even his family line that Jesus is born into, which is quite cool. But David's success and achievements were nothing to do with what he looked like but all to do with who he was - on the inside.

I wonder what a selfie of your inner thoughts, attitudes and heart condition would look like? Would it be something you'd be keen to share or something you'd want to keep hidden? Would it create an image that you'd be happy with, something that would inspire and encourage others or something you'd be ashamed of? Next time you're posting a selfie or even checking out someone else's, why not examine the state of your heart / what's going on in your thought life / where you're at with God? Why not even pray for God to give you a heart like David's and see what happens?

Closer than you think/ God loves sardines

So I was woken up this morning at 3am by my 4 year old daughter Molly, shouting.

After a moment of lying there wondering what was happening I fully awoke and realised that she was not going to stop shouting by being ignored so I jumped out of bed and ran into her bedroom to find out what the matter was.

It turned out she'd lost her 'Blanky'. This is her special 'blanket' or 'rag' that she takes everywhere to snuggle and sniff. It started its life as a little hooded cardigan that she wore to sleep in as a baby and now looks nothing like that, but it's very special to her, and is now definitely an important family member!

Molly wearing her 'blanky' as a baby.

I knew that Molly would not go back to sleep and therefore neither would I, before Blanky was found. I also knew from past experience that Blanky would not be too far away - perhaps down the side of her bed or under her duvet, so in a bleary eyed state, in the dark, I started searching round her bed - looking in all the usual places, trying to find Blanky.

After a while of fumbling round and discovering that Blanky was not in any of the usual places, I widened my search to the rest of her bedroom. I couldn't find it anywhere so went back over to her bed, only to discover Blanky was on her bed right under where I'd originally been standing; right under my nose.

I was a bit confused but handed Molly her Blanky to her delight and then left her to go back to sleep while I started thinking about how on earth I hadn't seen it all along. How did I manage to spend so long searching for something that ended up being so close and so obvious?

In the book of Acts, chapter 17, in the New Testament of the Bible there's a story of the Apostle Paul visiting Athens. He noticed that in Athens there were lots of shrines and idols of various 'gods'. Paul had gone there to tell people about Jesus and somehow after a few days managed to get himself an audience of the philosophers, thinkers and important leaders of the city. Here's what he said to them:

"I notice that... one of your altars has this inscription on it: ‘To an Unknown God.’ This God, whom you worship without knowing, is the one I’m telling you about.
²⁴ “He is the God who made the world and everything in it. Since he is Lord of heaven and earth, he doesn’t live in man-made temples, ²⁵ and human hands can’t serve his needs—for he has no needs. He himself gives life and breath to everything, and he satisfies every need. ²⁶ From one man he created all the nations throughout the whole earth.
²⁷ “His purpose was for the nations to seek after God and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him—though he is not far from any one of us. ²⁸ For in him we live and move and exist. As some of your own poets have said, ‘We are his offspring.’ ²⁹ And since this is true, we shouldn’t think of God as an idol designed by craftsmen from gold or silver or stone.
³⁰ “God overlooked people’s ignorance about these things in earlier times, but now he commands everyone everywhere to repent of their sins and turn to him. ³¹ For he has set a day for judging the world with justice by the man he has appointed, and he proved to everyone who this is by raising him from the dead.”
³² When they heard Paul speak about the resurrection of the dead, some laughed in contempt, but others said, “We want to hear more about this later.” ³³ That ended Paul’s discussion with them, ³⁴ but some joined him and became believers."  (Acts 17:23-34)

The interesting thing is that in verse 27, Paul says that God's purpose is for people to seek after God in order to find him - and that he is not far from any one of us. So God's purpose for you is to look for him and to find him, knowing that he's not far from you. He's closer than you think.

This is good to know but maybe it doesn't always feel like that. I know that when I was searching in the dark for Molly's blanky, that was really close to me but I didn't realise it at the time, so it didn't feel close. There's something about darkness that makes it so much harder to see things for what they really are. I mean if it had been the daytime or if I'd put the light on, I'm sure I would have seen her blanky straight away.

Our world can be a dark place too. You just have to catch up with current news to hear all sorts of sad, horrific and distressing stories of what's going on in the world. Partly, it's this darkness around us that makes it really hard for us to see God or to believe that there is a God. I think that much of the darkness (all the bad stuff) we see and experience in our world is caused by what the Bible calls 'sin' of people. (What is sin? The state of being separated from God and the stuff that separates us from God like selfishness, greed, hatred, unforgiveness.) This is why Jesus came into the world - to die for us and offer us forgiveness of sin and to open a door for us to know God in a personal relationship. He came to bring light so that we can see clearly who God is. Jesus said this:

“I am the light of the world. If you follow me, you won’t have to walk in darkness, because you will have the light that leads to life.” (John 8:12)

In another book of the Bible, Paul wrote this about Jesus:

Christ is the visible image of the invisible God. (Colossians 1:15)

So basically it's like we're in a massive global game of sardines (that game where one person hides and everyone else has to find that person and hide with them - I used to love playing that when I was younger, in fact I still do). But in this game, God is the one hiding and everyone else is looking for him - to hide with him. And it's totally dark. To be fair loads of people have given up and are doing something else or have forgotten about the game completely. But then it's like Jesus has stepped in to the house and by dying on the cross he has switched on the light to reveal that God is right in the middle of the room all along.

If you're searching for God, please look to Jesus. Read more about him in the books of Matthew, Mark, Luke or John in the New Testament of the Bible (check out Biblegateway.com). Remember that God is closer than you think - 'he's not far from any one of us'.




Why get people to pray for you during your exams?

So I've set up this simple system to post your exams online (Thanks to Tom Clark & 24-7 Prayer) so that others can go and see when your exams are and pray for you. (http://is.gd/pray4myexams).

Why? Is God bothered? Surely he's got more to think about - world hunger, human traffiking, war, poverty, injustice. Why would God be interested in you and your exams?

Well God is totally interested in all those massive issues but he also loves individual people, including you, and he's big enough to care for you as well as massive world issues. He cares about our lives and the detail of our day.

In the Bible, in Peter's first book, chapter 5 verse 7 he writes: 'Give all your worries to him, because he cares about you.' That's as true today about you as much as it was for the people Peter was writing to.

So if people are praying for you, will God give you all the right answers and you'll get 100% in all your exams? Unlikely. What's the point then? Well you will more likely know the presence of God with you - what's that? Well the Holy Spirit is the bringer of peace. (Jesus himself owns peace - he's the Prince of Peace). That's going to be a good thing to be in a peaceful state while doing your exams rather than anxious and unable to concentrate. I believe that prayer will result in a clearer mind. I believe God can help you recall to mind the knowledge you do have and use the revision and work you've done to help you to do as well as you are able to do. Maybe he'll help you keep your whole life in perspective and balance - don't be all consumed with exams. They're important, but there's other important things in life too. Sometimes in times of stress, we lose sight of that.

See it as a partnership - you work hard and be prepared - but go into your exams knowing that God is with you, helping you. God is good. God is for you, not against you.

So, please fill in your exams on the website http://is.gd/pray4myexams. People will pray for you. What have you got to lose...