The Pictures You'll Never Post

These are the pictures we post and see on our social media feeds.

• The beach pic with your bare feet in the sand and a drink in your hand.
• The party with your arm around all your smiling friends.
• Your child on the soccer field holding the trophy.
• The grill full of bacon-wrapped steak.

These are the pictures you won't post:

• Your bleary-eyed morning face after you struggle to get out of bed.
• The pint of ice cream you're devouring at home alone on a Friday night because your friends are partying without you.  
• The miserable Thanksgiving you had when everyone got in a fight. 
• Your face after you lost your job, flunked out of school, or lost a ton of money. 

Humans have always been good at covering up their less desirable sides.  Adam and Eve were industrious in making apparel to conceal their nakedness.  Today, we are outfitted with a complexity of "fig leaves" called Snapchat, Facebook, Instagram, etc. 

We are masters at only showing the good sides.  We only project our success,  popularity, or accomplishments.  We conceal our loneliness, anxieties, and embarrassments.

As Christians, we ought to be OK with an explicitly sober assessment of our lives.  
After all, our Lord has seen it all.  
​
In the gospels, Jesus encountered:
​

• A woman caught in an adulterous act (Jn. 8).
• His friends, grown men, as timid as freshman on the first day of high school (Mk. 6 for one instance).
• A short man hiding in a tree and hiding behind his wealth (Lk. 19).
• A woman married five times (Jn. 4).
• A homeless naked man possessed by demons (Lk. 8).
• Hypocritical and insecure religious leaders (all over the gospels).

In every instance, Jesus is not repulsed.  No matter how bad, arrogant, or shameful the person. He knows who they are.  
He meets them where they are.
​He stays with them.  
 
Here's a old Latin phrase:

Essa quam videri - To be rather than to appear.

I regularly obsess about how I appear.  What do people think of me?  How can I get people to like me?  It seems juvenile, but adults graduate to more advanced forms of these very simple questions. 

I keep returning to the gospel - that I am truly known by God in Christ.  I am loved, even when he knows the worst of me.  ​

Many people know how you appear.  God knows who you are.  

If God knows who you are, there's no sense in keeping up with appearances.

• Find an inner circle of trusted friends with whom you can share your full self.
• Set aside superficial piety in the church.

• Before you post something, ask, "Is this me or is it just for appearances?"  
• Be honest about your sins and shortcomings.  
• Be confident in the unique person God made you to be.

And never take a family Christmas picture in a four-person sweater (see photo above).