The Meaning Of A Selfie And President Obama’s Desire To Impact This Generation At A Funeral

Selfies. It’s what we call those photos that we take of ourselves. Social media invites us to invite everyone we know (and we don’t know) into our lives. It’s one of the things I LOVE about social media. 600,000 people connect with me through my various channels and in any given week MILLIONS of people are engaging with us. I LOVE IT!

So why the epidemic with selfies and when can a #selfie go completely wrong?!

Photos in bathrooms – Why do we do this? because the lighting and mirrors are so great? I DOUBT IT!

Or the selfies we take with friends!  This one was taken at an ULTA store. Girls and guys if you want a selfie that has GREAT lighting and makes you look SO much better than you are, take the time to drive over a local ULTA or SEPHORA store and take a selfie!

The things we do and the things we say on social media are no longer filtered, bridled or even considered it seems. Which in many ways, I’m totally ok with. My desire is to end the stupid role playing, acting like you’re perfect when everyone knows you’re not and all the other things we do to create obsessions in our culture with a fake image that no one can maintain.

Selfies can be fun, they can be exciting, they can be downright gross (ever see those selfies where people take a bite of food and open their mouth?) OMG.. seriously. #grossselfie 

Then it blew up in the media. The President of the United States Of America took a selfie at Nelson Mandelas’ memorial! HORRORS!

Was it a horror? Or was it just a simple gesture by a man who was celebrating an incredible life with friends who also were so grateful for all that Mandela did.

For the record, I love President Barack Obama. I didn’t vote for him and won’t vote for him, but that is not my point. I love him. Truly love him. He has one of, if not the toughest job, in the nation I live in. He needs my prayers, my love and belief. If I was in that position, which I’ve thought about many many times as I have pondered the thought of running for Congress sometime in the future, it would be so painful to live in such a big fishbowl. My gosh, I have 600,000 people who follow me and the fishbowl I already live in can be challenging. Thank God I have powerful friends around me, Mothers and Fathers in the faith who speak into me. And…. God gave me a certain Tiger Like Tenacity that helps me to blow off people and ignore critics who don’t know me, my heart or my mission. 

So was Barack Obama wrong in taking a selfie with friends? In this generation where social media has us showing our best, our worst and our in betweens?

Michelle Obama, First Lady, doing a selfie.

We all make mistakes. Was this a mistake? I personally don’t think so. I think it was an act by a man who was just living out the generation he lives in and maybe, for a few seconds, he was just having fun. Would Nelson Mandela rumble out of his grave and roar with disgust, “WHAT ARE YOU DOING this event is about me!! I DIED! Sheeesh, can’t you focus on me?!”  

Nelson would never have done that. Not in his character. He might have laughed. I bet if he could see President Obama’s selfie he would remember the persecution, the pain and the pressure he has been through as a leader and he’d most likely chuckle and say, “You’re gonna need to keep laughing Barack, it will protect you.”

We live in a generation that needs love, acceptance and courage.

If you don’t like Barack Obama than stop posting crap on your Facebook page about him and get on your face and call out to the KING of the Universe, King Jesus, and ask Him to protect him, let him have an encounter with the living God, and love on him. But don’t use your freedom of speech to rip someone to shreds. Funny, I don’t see ONE KING anointed by God doing that over the leaders in the Old Testament and I don’t see ONE person doing that in the New Testament either. 

No, that’s the generation WE live in. Where we give our opinion, we post our thoughts and we take selfies in toilet rooms, with food in our mouth and occasionally, at a celebration with our friends, when a powerful loved one has departed and our lives are forever changed. 

#BEMORE

With love,

Sandi Krakowski