#nofilter...

Lately, I've had this #nofilter idea running around in my head. It's been an interesting phenomenon to watch on Instagram over the years. If you recall, when Instagram first burst onto the social media scene, the amazing thing about it and the thing that made it so attractive was its many filters. In just a couple of clicks, your ordinary picture of a dog can become a literal Norman Rockwell painting. That flower you snapped on the way into your house? A museum-ready Monet with just the punch of a button. Your baby? Might as well be an Anne Geddes model. The filtered world that Instagram ushered in made merely attractive girls look like supermodels and turned blemishes into beauty. But then, a new trend emerged, that of the #nofilter photograph. Whereas we had once been completely enraptured by the filtered versions of pictures, we are now clamoring to prove that our picture hasn't been altered…that it is naturally that beautiful, that we don't need the aid of a filter to show you the magnificent site we've captured. It's interesting…the very thing we used to love is now the thing we are trying not to identify with. It just doesn't satisfy. It isn't the real deal.

Another phenomenon about social media in general is that it's ALL filtered. Occasionally you find the one person who isn't filtered and tells you everything about what they're doing all the time, their opinions on everything and how they feel about everything. But for the most part, we all unfriend/hide or unfollow those people pretty quickly. Everyone else…filtered. And that's how we like it. I'm not even sure that's not how it should be. But, I'm finding that if I'm not careful, I actually buy my own hype.

On social media, I'm an absolutely fabulous mother with perfect (and beautiful) children who loves my Braves and my Gators (both WINNERS at the time of this writing) and my church and my friends and my God. I love coffee and quiet time, my dog (who is actually perfect) and my husband (who is a certified rock star.) Those things are 100% true (well, maybe I'm not an ABSOLUTELY fabulous mother...) and though there are photographic filters applied here and there, the pictures are real as is the story behind them. But, they're the filtered version of my life. You cannot possibly know the real me from social media. You can know a lot about me and you can know what I'm okay with you knowing. But you can't really know me because I've filtered what you're getting. And though I'm uncomfortable saying it, it's okay that you're only getting the filtered version of me…on social media, that is. In fact, that's probably the way you like it. And that's okay too. Real, unfiltered lives are messy.

The problem comes when I let the filtered me be the one those closest to me relate to. When I let my spouse, my children and my friends begin relating to the filtered me, I'm on a slippery slope. When I start setting the filtered me before God, I'm in real trouble. And…when I actually buy my own filtered hype, I'm in for a rude awakening.

Recently, as this #nofilter thing began catching my attention, I really felt God pressing me toward authenticity with Him and the close, safe people in my life. I began asking what He wanted to show me through the process and how He wanted to shape me. (Side note: do NOT ask God what He wants to show you and how He wants to shape you if you don't want to be shown or shaped.) I started letting the filter come down a little with those safe people. All at once? Well no, I didn't want to literally blow them off the face of planet earth with the unfiltered me. But I did let the filter come down slowly and as appropriate. (You need to be sure that those closest to you WANT to relate to the unfiltered you…those will be your truly safe friends.) One friend confided that I was carrying a "heaviness" that was concerning her. Another friend invited me into an intensive several week Bible Study dealing with some very hard things which then exposed some equally ugly things in me. I submitted myself in two conversations with friends and they were free to say what they saw in me. One said "pride". The other said "critical spirit." Interestingly…those were the two things that God had been showing me as I was submitting myself to His scrutiny as well. How kind of Him (and also painful) to provide earthly confirmation of His heavenly urging to get those things rooted out of my life.

This has been and is still a painful process and season. I'm by no means in a "happy go lucky, all is right with the world" place, but by the grace of God, I AM in a "it is well with my soul" place. I am pressed, but NOT crushed. I am finding that I highly value those who know the real me and don't only get their information on or about me from social media. Those people are most likely to raise the flag when I start buying the filtered version of myself. Do I need to expose all corners of my life on social media? Certainly not. But, in a world where we wake up to check it, check it before bed, get our news and current events from it, find out about others on it, often use it to communicate (and even let it attack our identity and security every so often…yes, ladies?) it can become very easy to elevate it to a place it has no business being. It can cloud the authenticity needed in my life for me to be subject to the continuing refining scrutiny of the Holy Spirit. When I'm creating a filtered photo for the world to see, I'm starting to ask myself…"is this truly me?"

Social media has its place, to be sure…but in a world where it has invaded every aspect of our culture, it's helpful to remember that the place it should never invade is our authenticity before God and those closest to us who are so instrumental in the refinement process. If you're finding that you long for people who know the real you, ask yourself the following questions:

Who in my life knows me without my filters?
Have I allowed those people to hold me accountable and ask me the hard questions?
Do those closest to me even know I'm willing to hear the truth about me?
What's it like on the other side of me? (this was a brilliant question suggested by a friend of mine)

God is faithful. He will not leave you unanswered when you come before Him and ask for His perspective. I'm urging all of us to be honest and transparent as we relate to those closest to us and in doing so, may we find ourselves learning more about ourselves and the character of Jesus. Only He can truly take us with #nofilter and transform our lives for His glory.

God, investigate my life; get all the facts firsthand. I’m an open book to you; even from a distance, you know what I’m thinking. You know when I leave and when I get back; I’m never out of your sight. You know everything I’m going to say before I start the first sentence. I look behind me and you’re there, then up ahead and you’re there, too— your reassuring presence, coming and going. This is too much, too wonderful— I can’t take it all in!

Is there anyplace I can go to avoid your Spirit? to be out of your sight? If I climb to the sky, you’re there! If I go underground, you’re there! If I flew on morning’s wings to the far western horizon, You’d find me in a minute—you’re already there waiting! Then I said to myself, “Oh, he even sees me in the dark! At night I’m immersed in the light!” It’s a fact: darkness isn’t dark to you; night and day, darkness and light, they’re all the same to you.

Oh yes, you shaped me first inside, then out; you formed me in my mother’s womb. I thank you, High God—you’re breathtaking! Body and soul, I am marvelously made! I worship in adoration—what a creation! You know me inside and out, you know every bone in my body; You know exactly how I was made, bit by bit, how I was sculpted from nothing into something. Like an open book, you watched me grow from conception to birth; all the stages of my life were spread out before you, The days of my life all prepared before I’d even lived one day.

Your thoughts—how rare, how beautiful! God, I’ll never comprehend them! I couldn’t even begin to count them—any more than I could count the sand of the sea. Oh, let me rise in the morning and live always with you! And please, God, do away with wickedness for good! And you murderers—out of here!— all the men and women who belittle you, God, infatuated with cheap god-imitations. See how I hate those who hate you, God, see how I loathe all this godless arrogance; I hate it with pure, unadulterated hatred. Your enemies are my enemies!

Investigate my life, O God, find out everything about me; Cross-examine and test me, get a clear picture of what I’m about; See for yourself whether I’ve done anything wrong— then guide me on the road to eternal life. Psalm 139