Instagramming God: The Holy Spirit Filter
First of all, HI!
I haven't written a blog post for over a year now! I can't really tell you why, except for that I have been taking time to think more and write less.
This summer I have been taking Lucky, our 1 year old labradoodle, for walks every night just about the time the sun starts to go down. While I am walking, well actaully, while he is walking me (and it's less of a walk and more of a "walk, jog, run, bolt, zig-zag, and wrap his leash around my legs" thing ) I can't help but notice the beautiful sunsets and country scenery around me. And of course, being the "capture every moment" kind of girl I am, I quickly yank Lucky to a stop and try to seize the immaculate colors and beams of light streaming across the sky.
When trying to snap the picture, I am often frustrated by the iPhone's innability to capture the beauty of God's creation in the way I want it to be captured. Now there are lots of things wrong with that previous sentence, and here is why.
The iPhone, as any person with a PhD. would tell you, or at least what I am about to tell you, is one of the most telling parts of our society. Kids are getting them at a ridiculously young age. Practically every other person in the U.S. has one. At dinner you will see people sitting across the table from each other and texting/instagramming/facebooking, rather than enjoying the company of the person sitting across from them. Through iPhones we can look at, read about, or post anything we want to- and we can recieve both positive and negative feedback on all those things we choose to post. Anyways, you get my point, it's an enormous part of our society- I am not even sure we would know what to do with ourselves if our iPhones suddenly quit.
So here I was trying to capture the magnificent sunset that our Creator had painted in the sky displaying His great glory, with a device that our self-idolizing society built. I was taking this moment God had given me in order to look upon Him in awe, and instead felt the need to share it on every social network- letting everyone see my "amazing ability to capture the beautiful sunset that every other person and their dog had also posted". I had turned something that was about HIM into something about me. I mean....come on.
I thought to myself, how silly is this? I am not supposed to be looking at God's creation through the actual LENSE of a device that feeds me societal standards- tapping on every inch of the screen trying to get it to look the way I want it to. I am not supposed to look at God through the filter of the sinful society that surrounds me- blocking the things I don't like and accentuating the parts I do. Why would God's creation be able to be captured by this device that our society has built? And, for those of you in the Instagramming world, which I am SO a part of, you know that after taking this picture of mine, I would have then proceeded to my ever growing amount of picture editing apps that would allow me to crop, highlight, and add filters to essentially change what the picture ever originally looked like- altering it to be something I wanted it to be, instead of appreciating it the way God created it to be.
We can't go through life "capturing" God's glory and all that He has for us using society's lense. Will we be able to see part of what He is trying to show us, or at least the "general outline"? Yes! But will we be able to fully experience His magnitude, glory, peace, and hope if we force Him and His creation through filters that we decide work best for us? No. We can't filter God's word to make something that we like better- seeing the parts of the "picture" we want to see and completely blurring out the parts that we don't.
We need to put on the "filter" of the Holy Sprit, and be able to look at the world and see it as God sees it, not as society sees it. Once we learn to do that, I think we will be able to experience God like we never have....in a pure, whole, and honest way.
p.s. I will continue to love Instagram, and continue to post sunset pictures.
p.s.s. As always, please excuse my misspelled words and grammar mistakes. Although I am an English Lit. major, I still struggle with all things grammar....which every one of my English professors has so kindly pointed out...especially my misuse of commas and dashes.
I haven't written a blog post for over a year now! I can't really tell you why, except for that I have been taking time to think more and write less.
This summer I have been taking Lucky, our 1 year old labradoodle, for walks every night just about the time the sun starts to go down. While I am walking, well actaully, while he is walking me (and it's less of a walk and more of a "walk, jog, run, bolt, zig-zag, and wrap his leash around my legs" thing ) I can't help but notice the beautiful sunsets and country scenery around me. And of course, being the "capture every moment" kind of girl I am, I quickly yank Lucky to a stop and try to seize the immaculate colors and beams of light streaming across the sky.
When trying to snap the picture, I am often frustrated by the iPhone's innability to capture the beauty of God's creation in the way I want it to be captured. Now there are lots of things wrong with that previous sentence, and here is why.
The iPhone, as any person with a PhD. would tell you, or at least what I am about to tell you, is one of the most telling parts of our society. Kids are getting them at a ridiculously young age. Practically every other person in the U.S. has one. At dinner you will see people sitting across the table from each other and texting/instagramming/facebooking, rather than enjoying the company of the person sitting across from them. Through iPhones we can look at, read about, or post anything we want to- and we can recieve both positive and negative feedback on all those things we choose to post. Anyways, you get my point, it's an enormous part of our society- I am not even sure we would know what to do with ourselves if our iPhones suddenly quit.
So here I was trying to capture the magnificent sunset that our Creator had painted in the sky displaying His great glory, with a device that our self-idolizing society built. I was taking this moment God had given me in order to look upon Him in awe, and instead felt the need to share it on every social network- letting everyone see my "amazing ability to capture the beautiful sunset that every other person and their dog had also posted". I had turned something that was about HIM into something about me. I mean....come on.
I thought to myself, how silly is this? I am not supposed to be looking at God's creation through the actual LENSE of a device that feeds me societal standards- tapping on every inch of the screen trying to get it to look the way I want it to. I am not supposed to look at God through the filter of the sinful society that surrounds me- blocking the things I don't like and accentuating the parts I do. Why would God's creation be able to be captured by this device that our society has built? And, for those of you in the Instagramming world, which I am SO a part of, you know that after taking this picture of mine, I would have then proceeded to my ever growing amount of picture editing apps that would allow me to crop, highlight, and add filters to essentially change what the picture ever originally looked like- altering it to be something I wanted it to be, instead of appreciating it the way God created it to be.
We can't go through life "capturing" God's glory and all that He has for us using society's lense. Will we be able to see part of what He is trying to show us, or at least the "general outline"? Yes! But will we be able to fully experience His magnitude, glory, peace, and hope if we force Him and His creation through filters that we decide work best for us? No. We can't filter God's word to make something that we like better- seeing the parts of the "picture" we want to see and completely blurring out the parts that we don't.
We have to put down the iPhone and everything that it represents in our society, and start to see God's word and His creation through His eyes. We have to put down the iPhone and enjoy those around us. We have to put down the iPhone, thrust our heads back towards the sky, and look at God the way he deserves to be looked at...with open eyes and pure hearts. We have to put down the iPhone, and stop listening to what society is telling us to be. Instead, we need to see oursleves and the world around us without any of the world's filters. We need to have eyes like our Heavenly Father- who uses no filter, but instead see's every part of us and still loves us deeply. Most of all, we have to put down the iPhone, and see God's whole picture, looking at it and appreciating it the way HE created it to be.
This also goes for the not so pretty things in our life that we are tempted to cover up with a filter. We instead need to see what is going on in our lives -the good, the bad, and the ugly- through the "Holy Spirit Filter". We need to ask: What is God trying to teach me/ show me/ lead me to/ or change in me?
This also goes for the not so pretty things in our life that we are tempted to cover up with a filter. We instead need to see what is going on in our lives -the good, the bad, and the ugly- through the "Holy Spirit Filter". We need to ask: What is God trying to teach me/ show me/ lead me to/ or change in me?
We need to put on the "filter" of the Holy Sprit, and be able to look at the world and see it as God sees it, not as society sees it. Once we learn to do that, I think we will be able to experience God like we never have....in a pure, whole, and honest way.
"Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect." (Romans 12:2)
p.s.s. As always, please excuse my misspelled words and grammar mistakes. Although I am an English Lit. major, I still struggle with all things grammar....which every one of my English professors has so kindly pointed out...especially my misuse of commas and dashes.
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