Look At Me!!!

#250: Look at ME!!!!

I am not sure but I think that at some point in the past three years, I might have acquired a heightened sense of sensitivity - discomfort, if I may be honest, around people who seem to believe that the world owes them massive degrees of attention. As someone who had been called "an expert in self-promotion" in a previous life, I feel a bit awkward (if not downright pretentious) expressing this now. I wonder if it's an indication that my level of confidence had diminished, or if it's a growing personal awareness that there are more worthy characters, bigger achievements, and more worthwhile causes deserving of attention. We cannot all be on the stage. There has to be an audience.

I recognize that we can all ask for attention. In fact, by our mere existence, we demand space - a self-shaped spot on this earth. The simplicity (or complexity, I leave that with you to decide) of modern-day technology actually makes it almost automatic for anyone to want to magnify one's self. Look at me on Facebook! Look at me at Multiply! Look at my friends - all 500 of them! Look at the work of my hands!!! Look at my food! The things I've bought! JUST LOOK AT MEEEEEE!!!!

The question now becomes, do we really think that what we have to offer is deserving of the world's notice? The growing insignificance of the things we share, coupled with the exponentially expanding ways by which we are able to announce our life's trivialities, has the inevitable effect of turning a large portion of the content we generate into... pure noise. As you can tell by the way I am using a public channel to air these thoughts, that I probably am no different to the same people I've grown quite amused to observe and wonder about. It makes me wonder what sort of environment encourages the amplification of self-absorption. Those darn 360-degree reviews must contribute to this as much as they claim to counter it. It's amazing the lengths one can go to beg for a measure of celebrity. I sometimes stare at someone and ask myself if I was exactly like that before... equally appalling, equally clueless. I wonder if I still am.

I have been blessed with a husband who always makes it a point to remind me,"Look at Christ." Nothing I can ever do in this world can ever claim significance in light of the surpassing greatness of Christ and what He had done for me. Nothing in my life can ever produce enough sparkle to warrant diverting glory from Christ, the Light and channelling it to me. My best & most useful occupation would be to reflect His Light and His glory. He must increase, and I, decrease.

I am certain that I will encounter many more struggles around the natural tendency to demand, "Look at me!" But as I go through these, I hope I'd always remember this song I learned as a child:

"Turn your eyes upon Jesus

Look full in His wonderful face

And the things of this earth will grow strangely dim

In the light of His Glory and Grace."