THE GOSPEL AND THE "LOOK AT ME" CULTURE

I am starting to become a huge fan of Jared Wilson's blog The Gospel Driven Church. One fine example is a post from about ten days ago called "The Gospel and the Look at Me Generation." This post begins ....


"Last Sunday our Bible study class was discussing the revelation that Mother Theresa went through a terrible "dark night of the soul" that lasted for years. I thought about how we didn't even know this about her until after she died, until after her once private journals were reviewed. While suffering from deep bouts of depression and feeling as though God's presence had left her, she nevertheless carried on her service to the diseased in Calcutta.

This made me think of how there's almost nothing we do today that isn't blogged, Facebooked, or tweeted. When someone in our culture is having a rough time, they tell us online. When they are serving others, they tell us online. And when they are serving others despite having a rough time, they tell us online. There is almost no thought, feeling, inclination, impulse, or attitude we don't share with everyone who will listen.

On the one hand, such transparency can be very valuable. It certainly is more honest than holding everything in or acting like we're fine when we're not. On the other hand, though, there is a fine line between transparency and vanity. Authenticity is great. Except when it's not.

I think my generation has spun the older Me Generation into a sort of "Look at Me" Culture, and now of course the generations after Gen-X are progressively perfecting "Look at me!" into a science ..."

Read the rest of the post at WILSON and see if you agree. I'd love to hear from you.