Social Networking | Personal
“ Most things that are perfect are lifeless- mechanical, plastic, replica’s of the real thing. Many people live a photoshopped life- flaws, frailties, weaknesses masked by pretend smiles, carefully crafted words and finely polished images. There’s a certain inherent beauty in real life- worn patterns and wood floors that reveal pathways and passions, marks on the thresholds marred by those whose lives toiled there.
I visited Winston Churchill’s home. It was a large, rustic mansion with hand-hewed beams and plank floors. Many tourists were impressed by the trophies that filled the cabinets that hung in many places in many of the rooms. But personally, I was drawn to the worn places in the certain rooms where Winston must have walked and knelt often. A discolored leather chair captured my attention where Winston sat a lot. I imagined him seated there during the tough days of war contemplating and praying for wisdom or passing the floor in thought. A well used desk stood proud in a den that once served as the place where Winston Churchill crafted many of his speeches; I was overwhelmed by a sense of nobility that filled the room. I love that the home was lived in,imperfect, scarred and worn. There was an intrinsic beauty about the mansion. Walls that told stories. Floors that whispered secrets. Antique furniture that begs to reveal mysteries. I sat outside on a bench at the front door for a long time just reflecting on the revelation that was seeping into my soul by being in the same place that once was occupied by a broken but great man.
I like my machines- iPad, car and computer, to be perfect, shiny and flawless. But the beauty of humanity lies in flaws, frailties, and weaknesses. Real might be rustic but at least it’s alive and not robotic, programmed and predictable. There’s something about real that’s beautiful. Yeah there is also something beautiful about going into a brand new house. But there’s something authentically beautiful about going into an old mansion inhabited by a great man that you don’t want them to paint over the walls. You don’t want them to carpet over the worn pathways of where that great man walked. It would be a tragedy to take out the old desk and put a new one in. There’s something bout the intrinsic beauty of real and authentic. Something about scars that become beautiful stories, wounds that become windows into your should that also tell stories.
Social Networking has created a world that’s not believable. Photoshopped pictures and profiles of who you want to be but not who you really are. Photos taken at your best moments that create an unrealistic life. We create this “new car smell” of what life is suppose to be like and when you live anything besides that, you can start to feel that you're not enough. You think others live above and better than you. It becomes a pressure to make others believe you live up there too because you want to be enough too because the #1 need in life is to be connected and who wants to be connected with someone who is not enough.
Some people say you are not good enough, but Jesus says you are.
The best thing you can do for yourself and others is to love yourself. Not in a prideful and conceited way, but loving who you are instead of hating and hiding who you really are. That will keep you from loving others. “
You are enough. So believe it and own it. There is no one else like you.
//// This is from an amazing podcast I was listening to called “ Cultures that Create World Changers: Part 2″ by Kris Vallotton. I really could relate to what he was saying about social networking and living a fake life in a way. I had to share it. I hope it impacted you the way it did for me! Check out the podcast online if you want. You can go to your podcast app and download it or go to his website- [ CLICK HERE! ].
It is about time we took a stand to be who we really are, love it and not be afraid to share it. I like to post only positive things about my life because I don’t like to spread negativity and I’m not a complainer. But there is a way to post things about your life that are real and positive. I love making things look good for pictures or setting up a scene just like anybody else [of course, I'm a photographer!], but I also love authenticity and won’t be anybody but myself. Just like in photography. There is beauty in blurry photos too.
so be you. Because you are beautiful / amazing / awesome / super cool / and you are good enough.
