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?
