May 17, 2024 – The Dollar Spot Devotions

The “Selfie” Stick – Who is that Gorgeous Person?

“Love never ends. But as for prophecies, they will come to an end; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will come to an end. For we know only in part, and we prophesy only in part;but when the complete comes, the partial will come to an end.  When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child; when I became an adult, I put an end to childish ways. For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then we will see face to face. Now I know only in part; then I will know fully, even as I have been fully known. And now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; and the greatest of these is love.” 1 Cor. 13:8-13

It is no surprise that the “Selfie Stick” was invented. The Selfie Stick is a device on which you can place your phone, and then hold the phone up in front of you and snap a picture of yourself, or a picture of you and your friends, or you and Mount Rushmore behind you – there are no limits to the use of the Selfie Stick.  But, as I said, it is no surprise that the Selfie Stick was invented, because Americans love to look at themselves. It is another symptom of the “Me” generation. Social media and all of the sites within that web of self-absorption is another symptom of the need to be self-important. It feeds our human need to be the center of attention.   

If Paul were alive today, I think he would say something like “For now we see as in a grainy, shaky “Zapruder Film-like” 8 millimeter camera lens, but then we will see face to face.”  When you watch news coverage for any event today (for example the protests on college campuses between supporters of Israel and Palestine) everyone, I mean everyone has their camera-phone on filming the events, hoping to catch someone doing something wrong so they can sell it to a news show and can get their 15 minutes of fame. 

We do not need a camera phone or a Selfie Stick to know who we are and how valuable or valued we are. All we need is to remember that G-d loves us, and claims us in our baptisms through the baptism of Jesus, which is all we need to be important – not self-important, but important to G-d. Put the Selfie Stick away in public so that others can see the real you – the one that is claimed by G-d and the most valuable commodity for Christ.

Pastor Dave