Counter culture worship for the selfie stick generation
Against the fast flowing current of our lives and culture, the act of worshipping God is like a river trying to work it's way uphill.
In the week in which I heard the latest phenomenon of 'selfie sticks' (the aid to ensuring your face appears constantly in the centre of your own universe) being renamed 'narcissi-stics', the idea of worshipping another outside of ourselves is a brave new concept.
Worship invites us to leave the safe handholds and hiding places of our own comfort and sufficiency - to step into the one whom we instantly recognise as greater and infinitely more absorbing than self.
David's Psalm 27 rightly orientates us this way. Lifting our heads as we declare our desire to 'gaze upon the beauty of the Lord and seek him in his temple.' The narcissist sings different lyrics to the same tune,' to gaze upon the beauty of myself, to find myself in my own temple!'
From this folly of self pursuit we are utterly rescued by the God who draws us into him and out of lesser forms of defective worship. Our hearts are awakened from their self-affected internalising - jolted to alertness with the cry, 'My heart says of you 'Seek his face'. Your face O Lord I will seek.'
Worship of God is as central today as it's ever been, in any culture, at any time.
'Come to me all you who are self absorbed, consumed with the minutiae of me.
Come to me you who are insecure in your introspection, proud of your preoccupation, laden with your low worth, breaking under the burden of your own bankrupt idols - I will give you rest!
Jesus invites our generation of consumers and tourists to turn our selfie sticks around, and to flood our gaze with the burning bright face of his greater glory!
In the week in which I heard the latest phenomenon of 'selfie sticks' (the aid to ensuring your face appears constantly in the centre of your own universe) being renamed 'narcissi-stics', the idea of worshipping another outside of ourselves is a brave new concept.
Worship invites us to leave the safe handholds and hiding places of our own comfort and sufficiency - to step into the one whom we instantly recognise as greater and infinitely more absorbing than self.
David's Psalm 27 rightly orientates us this way. Lifting our heads as we declare our desire to 'gaze upon the beauty of the Lord and seek him in his temple.' The narcissist sings different lyrics to the same tune,' to gaze upon the beauty of myself, to find myself in my own temple!'
From this folly of self pursuit we are utterly rescued by the God who draws us into him and out of lesser forms of defective worship. Our hearts are awakened from their self-affected internalising - jolted to alertness with the cry, 'My heart says of you 'Seek his face'. Your face O Lord I will seek.'
Worship of God is as central today as it's ever been, in any culture, at any time.
'Come to me all you who are self absorbed, consumed with the minutiae of me.
Come to me you who are insecure in your introspection, proud of your preoccupation, laden with your low worth, breaking under the burden of your own bankrupt idols - I will give you rest!
Jesus invites our generation of consumers and tourists to turn our selfie sticks around, and to flood our gaze with the burning bright face of his greater glory!
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