Self as Object of Worship

Scripture

Your heart will always be where your treasure is. Your eyes are like a window for your body. When they are good, you have all the light you need. But when your eyes are bad, everything is dark. If the light inside you is dark, you are in the dark. (Matthew 6:21-23 CEVUK)

Self as Object of Worship

In his book The Attention Merchants, Tim Wu traces the progression of advertising from the streets, to our homes, into our offices and into our pockets. With “selfies” and social media we can create our own image.

“Perhaps a century of the ascendant self, of the self’s progressive liberation from any trammels not explicitly conceived to protect other selves, perhaps this progression, when wedded to the magic of technology serving not the state or even the corporation but the individual ego, perhaps it could reach no other logical endpoint, but the self as its own object of worship.” (Attention Merchants, Wu, Knopf, p 315)

Strong words of warning. What we worship shapes what we become. Where our eyes go is the light we receive. Where our heart is, there will be what we treasure most. Much of what we do is harmless communication with family and friends but subtly we can become absorbed by our own self-reflection.

Jesus calls us to follow him in our brokenness to serve the brokenness of others, our communities and our world. He invites us to clear-eyed understanding that his Light is the true light that is not overcome by the darkness.

A Prayer for Today

Loving God, you reveal yourself in so many ways through Creation, sacred text, and the lives of others. When I miss you in the other, in creation, in scripture, forgive me. Let my eyes be filled with your light, my heart with your treasure. Let me serve with clarity and truth  ….. For Jesus’ sake