I See Myself in Miley...

I see myself in Miley Cyrus.

Really, I swore I wasn’t going to get in on this discussion.  I was rather depressed simply by the sheer number of articles I actually read and the plethora of disturbing pictures I subjected myself to made even more abysmal by the fact that I still don’t really know what the heck is going on in Syria or what to think about it.  Often I condemn the comments sections of articles on the internet for their serious lack of attention to important things and failure to follow any semblance of rhetorical argument structure at all, yet I find myself sucked into the discussion and adding to the attention the ex-Disney Princess has garnered for herself.

                                                       

I write about it now because I see myself in her.      

                                                       

Though she’s claimed to have hardly thought about her actions on national TV, her movements, her costuming, her song (I’ve never heard it but read some of the words…) are all clear cries for attention.  And sadly, it worked.  Though most of it has been negative, everyone’s talking about Miley.  Some people are disgusted, some saddened, some defend her, (some like me wonder who the heck dressed her in a color so unflattering) but whatever the reaction she got exactly what she wanted; the masses talking.  Even negative attention is attention, and in the entertainment industry especially, it doesn’t really matter which sort you have, so long as the voices don’t go silent.   

But I do the same thing.  Granted it’s on a much smaller scale, I certainly don’t have the rapt attention of the masses, nobody is going to be tweeting about my antics (you doubt I have antics?  I submit that I do!), but like Miley Cyrus, I crave the attention of others.  A lack of comments on my blog frustrates me, someone else becoming the center of a conversation sprouts the small vines of jealousy, losing makes me feel like a failure.  I want your attention, I want your praise, and I’ll be loud, offensive, or ridiculous to get it.  

So yeah, I’m a little sad for the girl desperate to make a name for herself, but I’m also sad for me.  And if I’m honest with myself, I am a bigger failure than the girl on TV because I know what has been done for me.  Due to no merit on my part I have been cherished and loved by the God of the universe, made apart of His kingdom, His body, at the expense of His Son.  I know all this, I have been, and am always, loved, yet I long for the approval of man.  I need to remember what Miley needs to know; that I was made in God’s image (Gen 1:27), that though I rebelled against Him He died for me (Rom 5:8), condescends to have a relationship with me and allows me to call Him “Father” (Rom 8:15)…but how easily I forget, how easily I seek satisfaction in the laud of the world…         

I pray for a better memory, to believe what I know to be true, and I pray for a gracious heart towards my fellow attention whores and people pleasers.  Lord, may your kingdom come swiftly…