Insta-Worthy
The subject line of a marketing email caught my attention the other day. “The most insta-worthy nursery could be yours!” it announced. Insta-worthy. The phrase sums up much about the popular culture that surrounds us Western women. Everything ends up on Instagram, and we want it all to look amazing. So we don’t clean our houses to serve our families; we clean them for the photos we’re about to take of our new living room furniture. We don’t take time to make a meal from scratch for the pure joy of it; we’re concerned about the lighting on that tomato slice. Instead of sipping the cup of pumpkin spice latte, we’re taking 95 photos of it and creating a caption about how much we love fall.
Not all of us spend our lives in search of the most likes on social media. But too many of us, especially us women, derive way too much of our sense of value from how our lives read in a set of pictures. Is it Insta-worthy? We look at our homes, our surroundings, our clothing, our personal appearances. We judge them, and we grow discontent when we compare with the celebrity we follow on Instagram.
From a dank prison, Paul wrote to the church in Ephesus:
“As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received. Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to one hope when you were called; one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.” (Eph. 4:1-6, NIV)
Worthy of Our Calling
If you are a Christian, you have been called “out of darkness into marvelous light,” says the apostle Peter (I Peter 2:9). He goes on to urge us to keep our conduct “honorable” (v. 12, ESV), so that Gentiles, or outsiders, will “see your good deeds and glorify God…” Our calling is to live lives that bring glory to God. It’s as simple as that.
How can we bring glory to God? By being different from the rest of the world, in the best of ways. Living an honorable life isn’t normal. People cheat, lie (“it’s just a white lie!”), and whitewash in order to “get ahead.” If we conduct our lives with honor in every area–including not whitewashing our lives or exaggerating them on social media–that brings God glory, because He is the only one who can make us sinners into honorable people.
Who calls us? Christ Himself calls us from the darkness in which we once wallowed. And because we have the Bible, we know how Christ lived on this earth. He walked in perfect holiness, perfect honor. To be worthy of our calling, we must seek to be worthy of Christ, to be LIKE Him.
Is It Possible to Be Like Christ?
We won’t achieve perfection until heaven. I John contains many of the strongest calls in the Bible to live righteously, and yet even it adds that, “If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us” (I Jn 1:8, ESV). However, we can and should be more sanctified as we mature in the faith. We obey Christ more, we love Him more, we love our brothers and sisters in the faith more each day. We pursue unity, as the passage in Ephesians quoted earlier mentions–although not at the cost of doctrinal truth. (One Lord, one faith, one baptism…)
As we seek Christ daily, we inevitably become more like Him. That means spending more time in His Word, meditating on His truth, talking with Him.
“He that would be conformed to Christ’s image, and become a Christ-like man, must be constantly studying Christ Himself.” –J.C. Ryle
How utterly convicting I find that quote. Do I study Christ as much as I study my fellow humans? I scroll through Facebook, waiting for something new and interesting to show up on my feed. Do I spend that much time scrolling through God’s Word, praying that He will show me new truths and new mercies?
So Should I Say Goodbye to Instagram?
We can easily go to extremes, from spending too much time on an activity to totally removing it from our lives. Social media has kept me connected to people for much longer than I otherwise would have, and for that reason I count it a blessing. For some, social media is a way of growing businesses and making a living. Pursuing excellence in how they present these businesses cannot be called wrong.
The problem lies in how we judge the value of our lives. Insta-worthy? It shouldn’t even be a consideration. If how our lives look on a grid has become so important, then we should honestly consider saying goodbye to that grid.
May we make meals, do the daily chores, parent our children, be faithful in our work, and even bring beauty to our homes for the glory of God. And may the picture we post be the afterthought rather than the reason.