Can You See Beyond Your Own Reflection?
A very popular word today is the word “selfie”. If you are reading this on the internet you know what a “selfie” is. But just in case someone else printed this for you, a selfie is a picture a person takes of himself or herself and then shares with others online. Sometimes such a picture can be harmless but unfortunately, the pictures are often not. A quick google image search of the world “selfie” reveals about 10 indecent pictures of the first 21 pictures that show up on the screen. What motivates someone to put up a picture of themselves like that? I think these people share some of the same unfortunate traits as Samson.
If you read the four chapters (Judges 13-16) which chronicle Samson’s life you will quickly see that Samson is all about “himself”. I’m sure that Samson would have taken a lot of “selfies” if he had a cell phone…selfies were a little more difficult when you were scratching them on a stone or making them out of wax… The way I have put it is that Samson could not see the world beyond his own reflection. Or, everything in Samson’s world was affected by his own reflection.
This is a way of life that is going to lead to trouble. The entire Bible speaks to the importance of serving others. The follower of Jesus is qualified as a servant, not a “selfie”. It is a fairly consistent struggle for most of us to do this…we like ourselves (which is why Jesus taught us to love our neighbors as ourselves). Let me give you a suggestion. A way to help to see beyond your own reflection is to try to see life through the grid of God’s plan for your life. Living this way helps to keep the focus off of you and puts the focus on God and others. Don’t worry. God will still take care of you. If more people will do this, we will be better followers of Jesus and better citizens of our world….and we won’t have to see so many inappropriate selfies!