day 1268: What is Hidden?

"The Lord’s light penetrates the human spirit, exposing every hidden motive."

I am sure there will be some who will write that they disagree with me, but it appears to me that at the heart of the now well-known Snapchat is the ability to send a picture to someone that no one has a record of being sent and the receiving person can't copy, forward or retain.  Consider for a moment what types of pictures one would want to send with those characteristics?  Kodak once had a marketing campaign that said, "A picture is worth a 1000 memories".  That would not be a slogan that Snapchat would want to use. Applications like Snapchat and the ability to surf the net privately all have rationalizations on why these are important and needed.  That said, those things that no one else can see, that there is no record of, do not normally lead people down a good path of action.  Facebook may have been given a reputation favor by Snapchat turning down their $3B offer.   If Snapchat were ever to build a business where they could go public, they will have to convince their investors that the content of Snapchat is something other than what it is today.

What we do when no one else can see or know may be the best indication of who we really are. This is not meant to be a bummer to start the day, but it is a cold, stark truth that we must face. Thoughts that we have, what we watch, what we read, what we do and say when no one else can see or hear...that is our default mode and it's who we are.  When we think of it this way, "Do we like who we are?"  The answer, not surprisingly, is almost always, "No".  This is because we are all flawed and sinful by nature, but that doesn't mean that we have to live that way.  This is the promise we are given through Jesus that His light can shine within us to expose who we really are so we can change to be more like Him.  Today, each of us will be faced with a moment(s) of choice to act in a way that is hidden, or to act in way that if everyone was looking, we and God would be pleased.  Our God is a God of forgiveness and redemption.  To Him, our sins are "SnapSins"...they happened, we sincerely repent, they are forgiven and gone forever.   What has been hidden can be exposed if we only open up ourselves to Him! Will we?

Reference: Proverbs 20:27 (New Living Translation)