oh yeah I forgot this was supposed to be a series. lol. my bad, I get lazy and life has been rather busy. which reminds me that I should tell everyone in the world ... the real me is kind of lazy, loves to sleep, complains a lot, literally never wears make up to work, generally has a more pessimistic outlook on life, can be extremely judgmental, is short with those I love/care about the most, cannot keep my room clean, has horrible road rage and my 15 year old car has old french fries, trash and coffee stains all over it. am I even an actual adult!? it's funny that you'd neverrrrr know any of that by scrolling through my perfectly manicured social media outlets. am I right?! life can feel SO isolated when you start believing the lie, that you're the only one with a messy life beyond the cropped lines.
the best part of instagram is the array of filters & cropping options, if I want to be more tan there's a filter for that. if I want to make the bags under my eyes look less noticeable, there's a filter for that. I am curious who actually posts #nofilter photos?? and sorry, but is it ACTUALLY filter-less?! lets be honest, the crop & filter of the photo can actually make or break how I appear online ..... and potentially lose them likes. it's why the weight loss before & after photos that flood my feed, from different work out accounts I follow sort of crack me up ... bad over head lighting and where your leggings sit on your hips, will determine if you look 10 pounds less than you are or not. [not discrediting peoples hard work, I truly find it inspirational when people change their habits to strengthen their body]. just saying, I know all the tricks okay.
how funny, sad & yet warped is it that we go to such lengths to get the perfect lighting, best angle & such a precise crop ... to post ONE square photo. sound familiar?! it's scary how easily I get sucked into this process in real life, not just on my instagram boast(s). I find myself having this mentality in real life too people! I try so hard to look, speak, come across or appear a certain way from the outside. when in reality my life is cropped so no one sees my messy bathroom, the taco bell bag in my car from last week, how I snapped at my boyfriend or when I screamed profanities to myself as the driver in front of me... who #&*!#$% missed the green arrow. uh.. I don't want to spend my life living such a filtered-cropped-perfect-lighting life. why is it so difficult!? it's interesting that the only people who actually see my un-edited life are the ones that love me the most. why do I even try so hard to crop my life to out-siders?!people; we're all messy humans okay?! lets be honest, a lot of us don't take vitamins, floss their teeth or say thank you enough [maybe that's just me?]. my room is almost always messy, I just move it out of the way for my instagram boast(s). I don't want anyone to know I have a messy room, therefore I choose not to tell/show anyone I have a messy room... I easily crop that part of my life out. maybe it's just me. guys, life is SO much more messier than my room or my un-filtered life. my life is a mess of insecurities, struggles, secret sin, relationships, thoughts, actions ect... I just happen to be an expert at making everyone else think my life is super tidy & perfectly cropped. it's like putting lipstick on a pig.
just like my family, the bearded wonder & a hand full of close friends choose to love my mess... Jesus welcomes our mess! HE steps into our mess and gives us the chance to clean up. it's comforting that we don't have to crop our lives with God, he sees beyond the cropped lines & filters. Jesus sees us & loves us the same. God calls us his MASTERPIECE [Ephesians 2:10.. the best], we're perfectly cropped to HIS liking. God has created us exactly how He saw fit. not one mistake or blemish on his creations. God I pray that I can stop hiding inside the filters & cropped photos, let me live a transparent life ... where I'm reflecting YOUR image. I want to be cropped & filtered into your liking ... not mine.
