The New You

Have you ever heard of a web site called MySpace? Chances are, if you are webminded or have kids that are webminded, you have heard of it. If not, then let me explain. MySpace is a web site that allows a person to create a web page detailing their life. It can include pictures, stories, a complete biography, and just about anything else.

MySpace has become a youth phenomena. Kids from coast to coast update their sites more often than they brush their teeth. Some people like to talk about themselves and a webblog gives them the opportunity to do that. They write notes to each other and keep in touch and there is nothing wrong with that.

I have heard that it can be fun to surf around on MySpace just reading peoples profiles. So I did. I spent an hour surfing MySpace and found a lot of people write about stuff that I have no interest in. I don’t care if they like to pick up Cherios one by one and look for celebrity faces. I don’t care what their favorite band is or favorite video on YouTube. I guess that means I’m old. But with age comes wisdom and it didn’t take me long to realize that some of the bloggers on MySpace have no problem taking liberty with their cyber lives.

Many MySpace users don’t always tell the truth about themselves because in cyberworld, you can be anyone you want to be, you can embellish at will. You can be as rich and famous as you want to be or have as much drama in your life as you need. The cyberworld has no boundaries so who you say you are is who others will perceive you to be.

There is a new website that even plays on this. It’s an entire fantasy world called Second Life. Twelve months ago the membership at Second Life was 100,000. Now, only 12 months later membership to more than 2 million. Second Life is an entire cyber world that let’s people pretend to be whoever they want. They create a cyber body called an Avatar and live in cyber houses on cyber streets with few rules and no limits except imagination.

Although the cyber world phenomena is primarily utilized by the up and coming generations, people of all ages can be tempted to pretend be someone that they are not. There is real life in which we work a mundane job, go to school, take out the trash, see our spouse early in the morning, live in an average house on an average street and have a few friends.

Then there is the life we think we should have. A life like everyone has on Grey’s Anatomy full of drama and excitement. A life where we are the life of the party and no party is a real party unless they party with us. The problem is that the lines between the real world and the cyber world are becoming blurry for many people. The truth us that just because someones MySpace page or Second Life site states how happy and fulfilled they are, their real life may reflect the opposite.

All of us are tempted from time to time to portray ourselves as more popular than we really are. I mean who doesn’t want their neighbor to think that they have the perfect family. Who doesn’t want the extended family to think the marriage is perfect? And one of the biggest reasons for pretending to be something that you’re not is to make other people think you have more money than you actually do.

I think we have a tendency to pretend that we are someone that we are not because we want to be somebody special. Nobody wants to be just anybody. Everybody wants to be somebody. Make sense? You, me, we, all of us want to be someone that everyone knows something about. In other words, everyone wants to be someone special. The truth is that our identity cannot be created in a virtual world like Second Life or written about on MySpace. If you try and create your identity on anything but the truth, you will never escape the limitations of cyberspace and find real joy in the real world.

If you are unhappy with the real you, don’t make up another you in cyberworld or settle for long term discontentment, find out who you are by looking to the source of life.

WHO AM I?

My identity was created by Christ.

The Bible says: “For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb.” Psalm 139:13 NIV

You were not made on an assembly line in China. Nobody bought you on E-bay. Your identity was not generated on Second life. You have been created by God and you are unique. With God, there are no accidents. God made you with freckles on purpose. He made you short on purpose. He made you tall on purpose. He made you blonde or brunette or a red head. God made you beautiful, that’s what he did. You might not like the way you look but God does. He takes great joy in you.