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1:03
This is a Dante's Life, a man's podcast.
1:13
I'm your host Kyle Thompson.
1:14
Let's get into it.
1:15
All right, guys.
1:16
Today we're going to be talking about something that I know a lot of you haven't heard about,
1:19
but it has been in the news.
1:20
There have been several articles written about this here recently, so you may have heard
1:23
about it.
1:24
Maybe you didn't know everything that went into it, so we're going to get into it today.
1:27
We're going to talk about Snapchat dysmorphia.
1:30
Okay, what in the world is that?
1:32
So I know for some of you guys listening, you don't even know what Snapchat is.
1:35
And so I'll just be real honest with you.
1:37
I'm not on this particular social media, so I basically stick to Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter,
1:41
that kind of stuff, Instagram, but I don't really use Snapchat.
1:44
But for some of you guys out there that do not have Snapchat, essentially it's a messaging
1:49
app.
1:50
They're back in 2011, but you can send pictures or short videos, and these are only things
1:56
that are accessible for a short period of time.
1:58
Like I even know people that Snapchat with their kids.
2:00
So as opposed to sending a text back and forth with their kids, it's just these little snippets
2:04
back and forth like, Hey, what are you doing?
2:05
Where are you hanging out?
2:06
And it's just kind of a fun little thing.
2:08
But you know, for a lot of people not really knowing what it is, especially for some in
2:13
the older generation, there's close to 200 million users worldwide.
2:17
So it's a very significant social media app.
2:19
It's not, you know, up there with the giants quite yet, but it is really, really popular.
2:24
And specifically, this is really popular with Gen Z.
2:26
So that is the younger generation right behind the millennials.
2:29
It's way more popular for them than Facebook or Twitter or things like that.
2:34
Those people tend to stick to Snapchat and Instagram.
2:38
But the thing about this in terms of Snapchat dysphoria and specifically will focus on Snapchat
2:43
is we have seen kind of this uptick in people that are wanting to change their overall appearance.
2:51
And it's based on what they're seeing through the lens on things like Snapchat.
2:55
Okay.
2:56
So let me kind of break this down and I'll see if I can do this where it makes sense.
2:59
But used to, if you were a plastic surgeon and you had a lot of plastic surgeons that
3:03
are talking about this, when people requested to have plastic surgery done and it wasn't
3:07
because of some sort of an accident, it was because they wanted to be made to look like
3:12
their favorite celebrity, right?
3:14
So say they would come in with a picture of Brad Pitt or of Jennifer Aniston or if someone
3:19
that they thought was really, really attractive and they would say, make me look like this
3:23
person, right?
3:24
So, so maybe that would be shaving down their cheekbones or a nose job or fixing something
3:29
in their jawline or doing something with their skin, like whatever the thing may be.
3:33
But basically that's what it used to be, right?
3:37
But today, if you listen to plastic surgeons today, a lot of the requests that are coming
3:41
in is to make people look better in selfies.
3:45
And no, I'm not kidding.
3:47
I know a lot of the guys who listen to this podcast, you're not like selfie people, but
3:51
a lot of people are going into these doctors saying, I want to look better in my selfies.
3:55
Can I please just look better?
3:56
But a lot of it is happening in Snapchat as well because one thing that Snapchat does is
4:02
they have filters.
4:04
So you've seen this on Instagram, but again, today we're going to focus mainly on Snapchat.
4:07
But there are filters that you can put on a picture that change your appearance appearance.
4:13
Some of them are kind of ridiculous, like it'll make you have like a dog nose and dog ears
4:16
or bunny ears and a tongue or something like that.
4:19
But some of these things, they automatically change the features of your face.
4:23
So it will, you know, take your cheekbones higher.
4:26
It'll narrow your nose a little bit, it'll make your eyes bigger.
4:29
And so it's just a little bit more of an attractive look.
4:32
And so it's not meant to be as goofy as, you know, the dog or the bunny or whatever
4:35
else, but it's just changing these people's overall appearance.
4:40
So now, like I said, these plastic surgeons are reporting that these people are coming
4:43
in saying, I want my selfies to look better.
4:45
I want to look like my Snapchat filter, right?
4:49
And so there's different editing apps also within some of these different apps that you
4:53
can use.
4:54
So like FaceTune is one where you can basically do the job of Photoshop, but do it right there
4:59
on your phone.
5:00
So you can change your skin tone.
5:02
You can, you know, edit out blemishes or any cuts on your face or scars or something like
5:07
that.
5:08
You can just change your overall appearance before you just post your selfie on whatever
5:12
social media site you're doing that for.
5:13
And that's essentially what it's good for is for selfies.
5:16
But the Journal of American Medical, Medical Association, so JAMA, this, this was an organization
5:22
that's kind of looking at current data and they're looking at trends that are a little
5:27
bit disconcerting when it comes to this type of an attitude and the things that they do.
5:31
And so I wanted to take a quote from one of their current articles about what's happening
5:36
here.
5:37
And so here we go.
5:38
Current data show that 55% of surgeons report seeing patients who request surgery to improve
5:42
their appearance in selfies up from 42% in 2015.
5:48
The survey also noted an increase in the number of patients sharing their surgical process
5:52
and results on social media.
5:55
So again, I'm going to go back to the numbers that we had in those stats guys.
5:59
It went up 13% in three years, the number of people that are requesting surgical alterations
6:06
to approve their appearance in selfies, like that's a very specific claim, right?
6:10
This isn't like, okay, well, you know, 42% one to improve their appearance, you know,
6:14
three years ago now it's 55% no, no, no, it's they want to appear.
6:18
They want to increase or the appeal of their appearance whenever they're taking a selfie
6:23
specifically.
6:24
So just kind of let that sneak sink in for you guys a little bit.
6:27
So again, this is called Snapchat dysmorphia, which guys, this is an idiomatic term.
6:32
It's a colloquial term.
6:34
It's not an actual diagnosable condition, however, this is still fairly new.
6:39
So there's a lot of things that we've seen where this wasn't like a definable diagnosable
6:43
condition.
6:44
And until that was, right.
6:46
So so right now it's pretty much close to BDD.
6:49
And if you're not familiar with that, that's body dysmorphic disorder.
6:52
So body dysmorphic disorder BDD is classified on the obsessive compulsive spectrum about
6:57
one in 50 people.
7:00
They're about to have this.
7:02
But essentially what this is, and as you've seen this, you've seen people that can't be
7:06
skinny enough.
7:07
Like they're they're really, really skinny, but every time they look in the mirror, they
7:10
feel like they need to be skinnier, which can lead to anorexia or bulimia or things
7:14
like that.
7:15
I mean, I remember working at a gym when I was in college.
7:17
And there was this gal who she would do about an hour or two's worth of cardio in the mornings
7:24
when I would be there working out.
7:26
And then in the evenings, she would do an hour or two more.
7:30
And this girl definitely weighed less than a hundred pounds.
7:33
You could see her her ribs coming through her shirt.
7:36
You could see like all of her shoulder blades like it.
7:39
It was a really, really bad look.
7:40
And finally I had to tell somebody that worked in staff, because again, I'm at a 18 at the
7:44
time, like what am I going to do, go up there and, you know, risk my job to help this girl
7:48
again.
7:49
I was 18.
7:50
I didn't know what to do.
7:51
So I went to one of my supervisors and I basically told them about this because I said,
7:53
look, like we're watching this girl waste away here.
7:57
And so they ended up taking this girl to the side and talking to her and trying to help
8:01
her out because, you know, she obviously had BDD.
8:04
But then we see this with other people as well.
8:06
We see it on the other side.
8:07
So this, this is the one that affects guys more.
8:09
You see guys that can't be big enough, right?
8:12
They can't be swole enough.
8:14
They can't be stacked enough that like they can't.
8:16
So every time they look in the mirror, even if they're jacked, I mean, 20 inch biceps
8:21
and, you know, cut abdominals and huge chest and neck, they're always looking in the mirror
8:26
and thinking, man, I need to be bigger.
8:28
Like they have body dysmorphic disorder there, they're what they're seeing in the mirror
8:32
is not what they want to see.
8:35
And so here's the thing that that's interesting about BDD, especially with these individuals
8:39
that are requesting surgery so that their Snapchat, you know, pictures and selfies look
8:44
better is pretty much, and you can see where this is going.
8:47
It doesn't improve after surgery for most people.
8:50
Like their dysmorphic disorder, their body dysmorphic disorder doesn't get solved after
8:55
they make the surgical changes, which is really interesting to think about because these people
9:01
are like, literally, it starts with, Hey, if I can just get my nose fixed, my nose is
9:04
just big or my nose is crooked or something like that.
9:07
If I could just get that fixed, then I'll really like what I see in the mirror.
9:10
But then they get their nose fixed, they go through all the pain and suffering and recovery
9:14
and money that had to spend for that.
9:16
And then it's something else.
9:17
Wow, my ears stick out too much.
9:19
Or man, I really wish my lips were fuller or something like that.
9:22
It just doesn't improve.
9:23
It just they always want more.
9:25
And so here's the thing, guys, is some of these requests are like the ones I've mentioned
9:29
already.
9:30
So it's rhinoplasty.
9:31
So nose jobs, higher cheekbones, more defined jawlines.
9:34
Something that was really interesting as I was researching this topic before the podcast,
9:38
there was a surgeon in Beverly Hills that had a young gal come in.
9:42
I mean, she again was maybe 20, 22 years old, something like that.
9:46
She wanted anime eyes.
9:48
So for guys that don't know what I'm talking about, it's like, you know, Japanese anime,
9:52
like the different drawing styles, all those characters have really, really, really big
9:57
eyes, like really, really huge eyes.
10:00
And so this girl came in and she wanted her eyes to basically be three times bigger than
10:05
what they were.
10:06
And so this, this doctor was like completely flabbergasted at how flabbergasted this girl
10:12
was.
10:13
He was basically trying to explain to her, I can't make your eyes bigger, like, but she's
10:16
showing him on this filter is like little look like I did this filter and look how big
10:20
my eyes are.
10:21
I really like how I look here.
10:23
And he's having to basically break her heart and say, man, I can't make your eyes bigger.
10:27
But one thing that we're seeing is there's a really market increase in requested plastic
10:32
surgery by those that are below the age of 30.
10:36
Like we always used to think, and you may see people that are like this, you know, a lady,
10:40
she starts getting into her 40s and 50s, and then she's really, really concerned about
10:43
her look.
10:44
So she's going to, you know, get, get some facial work done.
10:47
And typically you can kind of tell when you come across those people because it doesn't
10:50
look that natural.
10:51
But we see this in guys as well, you know, they'll get their skin stretch or altered on
10:54
their neck or different things going on with their face and it's just like, yeah, you kind
10:59
of see why people do that in old age, especially if they're trying to hang on to their younger
11:02
years.
11:03
But this is happening to people below the age of 30, like that's incredibly concerning.
11:07
But then in addition to that, we already have a generation of people that is embracing
11:11
debt at a rate that we never thought possible.
11:14
But the costs of a lot of these things that these people are doing, these young people
11:17
are doing are incredibly expensive.
11:20
So just to kind of give you like a reference point, if you were to get like a facial or
11:25
neck smoothing of some kind, that's like a $15,000 procedure, you know, a boob job or
11:30
a butt job, I know some of you guys are like butt job.
11:32
Yes, there are actually people that are injecting things into women's butts.
11:36
So their butts are fuller and higher and all those different things.
11:39
That's about 15,000 bucks, you know, liposuction, whether that's on your on your stomach or arms
11:44
or legs or something like that, that's about 20 grand tummy tucks are about 20 grand.
11:49
So these are not cheap things, guys, like these are really, really expensive things
11:53
that these people, some of these people are going into debt in order to just try to look
11:57
like a selfie, right, or like it like something that their filter took.
12:01
And so as we kind of get into the second half of this episode here, there was one really,
12:08
really interesting quote that came from the doctor who coined the term snapchat dysmorphia.
12:14
And I think it's really important for us as we're looking at this through a Christian
12:18
lens and a Christian worldview, like how, how are we going to look at this and how are
12:22
we going to operate in this type of a situation?
12:24
So this was a quote from the doctor.
12:27
Treating patients that do show those red flags is not only unethical, but also detrimental
12:32
to the patient as they need something that no needle or scalpel can ever provide.
12:38
I'll read that last part again.
12:40
As they need something that no needle or scalpel can ever provide.
12:45
So obviously the doctor here is talking about those, those red flags of, okay, this is someone
12:49
that's just going to constantly be coming into my office periodically, trying to get
12:53
me to assist them in this new venture of making this part of their body more desirable, right?
12:59
But, but again, as they need something that no needle or scalpel can ever provide.
13:05
What's interesting about this quote is you can kind of tell like this is someone that
13:10
I presume is more on the site, scientific side, but it's basically like trying to find ultimate
13:16
meaning while using a non-theistic, humanistic, materialistic framework, right?
13:22
And we've kind of talked about this a little bit on this podcast before, but it's like
13:26
when an atheist tries to explain to you, like have them try to explain happiness to you,
13:30
like what is happiness?
13:32
Because if it's not something that just helps us live longer and helps us, you know, maintain
13:35
the species and keep it, you know, going forward, then what is that?
13:39
You know, what is charity?
13:41
Like what is meaning?
13:43
So, so these people are trying to find worth somewhere and they're doing it by going under
13:49
the knife, right?
13:50
And trying to take care of things, but here's this doctor even.
13:53
He knows there's something missing for these people.
13:56
And I am going to presume a few things here.
13:58
So I'm going to pretty much be putting words in this doctor's mouth, even though that's
14:01
kind of unfair to him, I'm just going to do that for the sake of this podcast.
14:04
But I feel like if he notices that one of these individuals, that's kind of what they're
14:08
doing.
14:09
Is that going to stop him from taking their money?
14:13
So he sees a 25 year old girl or guy and, you know, they're trying to make sure that
14:17
they look exactly like they want based on their filters or something like that.
14:22
And he's just going to be like, nah, I'm not going to go ahead and do that tummy talk
14:25
for you.
14:26
You don't need it.
14:27
You need help.
14:28
I mean, I don't know, $20,000 is $20,000, man.
14:31
And if you're running a business and you haven't employees, maybe you take that.
14:34
But let's assume he's a good guy.
14:35
Let's assume he's altruistic and he wants to help people out.
14:38
What's going to say that like, what's his next step?
14:41
Send him to a counselor, send him to a psychologist of some kind.
14:44
I mean, maybe, maybe that's something that they'll do.
14:47
Maybe not.
14:48
But at the end of the day, he's running a business, but he knows there's something missing.
14:52
But he doesn't want to necessarily get into that.
14:55
So I watch this interview of this.
14:58
It was a different doctor.
14:59
This was another guy that was in Beverly Hills, but he was just kind of describing these different
15:02
situations and how much they cost, but at no point, you can kind of tell that the people
15:06
interviewing him were, they were trying to give him softball questions where he was going
15:09
to say, no, if somebody wants to come in and just change something and I think they're
15:13
just going to be back in here again.
15:15
And you know, they have some sort of dysmorphia going on that I wouldn't take their money,
15:18
but the dude wouldn't say it.
15:19
Right?
15:20
I mean, he's in Beverly Hills.
15:21
People are just going to want to change those things.
15:23
They're going to want to adjust it into whatever way that they want to.
15:26
But again, it's so interesting that this doctor would bring that up because he knows there's
15:30
a gap, but he doesn't know how to quantify what can go in that gap because he's in the
15:35
world of humanism, you know, biological humanism, right?
15:40
Everything is just based on our biology.
15:42
Every decision that we make is based on our biology.
15:44
And so it's so hard for them to quantify anything that doesn't really fit into that framework.
15:51
Right?
15:52
So I want to transition here to kind of talk about a few different things is why this should
15:56
concern us as men of God, because again, some of you guys may have already mentally checked
16:00
out in this podcast.
16:01
I'm going to ask you to kind of check back in here because you're like, well, dude, I
16:03
don't do with that, like I don't even know how to do a selfie on my phone.
16:06
Like, why in the world would I need to mess with that?
16:08
But but here's the thing is, is you may not be dealing with this, but the youth around
16:14
you are whether that's the youth that live in your household or the youth that are in
16:20
in the youth group at your church, or if you volunteer at the school, it's those individuals,
16:25
like these people are being affected by this.
16:28
And so even if your kid has a tremendous amount of self confidence or the kid that you help
16:31
mentor, you know, down at big brothers, business sisters, like those types of these people
16:35
deal with this.
16:37
And so for us as men, if we're going to be guiding these individuals, what is it that
16:40
we can do?
16:42
And so there's a few concerns that I want to, you know, there's a few things that I want
16:45
to go over as to why this should concern us.
16:47
So I came up with five.
16:49
So just kind of follow me through here.
16:51
The first one is the youth are looking for perfection in their appearance.
16:55
And so again, go back to when you were a kid, right?
16:58
So when you're 13 or 14, maybe you're in that awkward stage of your body's not really developing
17:03
yet.
17:04
Maybe you were a late bloomer.
17:05
Maybe you were an early bloomer.
17:06
Just think about all the awkwardness and the tension that was going on in your body at that
17:09
time.
17:10
Like all of us understand that we would rather be pretty, you know, if we're a girl, we would
17:14
rather be pretty as opposed to not being pretty.
17:16
If we're a guy, we'd rather be seen as handsome as opposed to not being handsome, like those
17:19
types of things.
17:21
But this is different for what these kids are experiencing.
17:24
They're looking for perfection because a lot of these individuals again, just go, just
17:29
go look it up on Google, just type in, you know, Snapchat dysmorphia and a lot of the
17:32
people that are featured on the pictures and the articles are on the YouTube videos.
17:36
These are attractive people.
17:38
Like these are people that are attractive.
17:40
They're attractive males and females, but that's not good enough for them.
17:44
They have to attain perfection.
17:46
And these are individuals that are, it's this constant cycle of they're looking at these
17:49
pictures of these Instagram models and these people on Snapchat that they follow or these
17:53
businesses that are using these models to advertise to these individuals.
17:57
They're constantly just getting better and better looking bodies are tighter faces are
18:02
even more symmetrical and perfect.
18:04
And they're thinking, man, I have to measure up.
18:06
They're 14 years old and they're thinking they have to measure up on social media or
18:10
else their friends aren't going to accept them.
18:12
Like again, guys, I understand that that may seem ridiculous for you to understand or really
18:16
get through your head.
18:18
But any of you guys out there with teenage daughters, I feel like the feedback is going
18:21
to be exactly to that point that we're looking for perfection.
18:26
And it's really damaging how people are operating or as people are trying to figure out how
18:31
they traverse this life, right?
18:33
So that's something that I think is really important for us to understand.
18:36
And the second thing is, is as the West moves further away from this Judeo Christian ethic
18:41
in which we were founded, we can assume that issues like this will only get worse, right?
18:46
Because we've talked about this a lot on the podcast that we're, we're in a post Christendom
18:49
culture, we're moving away from that, that, you know, our, our people in government, but
18:54
also just people in any types of authority or even just in everyday life, they're moving
18:57
away from that Judeo Christian ethic.
19:00
So we can assume that these are problems that are going to continue to come up.
19:05
So I don't know what we're going to call the generation that comes after Gen Z, but these
19:09
individuals are going to grow up.
19:11
Even as Gen Z has, they've had these apps and they've had these phones since they could
19:16
basically figure out how to use them.
19:18
I mean, how many of you guys just put your, you know, your phone in your kid's hand,
19:21
whenever you just need them to go in the corner and shut up, right?
19:24
They know how to work these devices.
19:26
So if they are using these filters and they're using these, these social media apps out of
19:31
young age, it could be damaging.
19:33
And I'm not sitting here thinking that we should ban Snapchat.
19:35
All right.
19:36
Don't, don't misunderstand me.
19:37
But it is something to be cognizant of, it's something to be aware of because we could
19:41
ground ourselves before in a Judeo Christian ethic, but that is being pushed out to the
19:45
fringes of society, right?
19:48
Every Christmas, right?
19:49
We have this thing is like, are we allowed to say Christmas?
19:51
Are we allowed to have an activity seen on government property?
19:54
Are we allowed to post a 10 commandment somewhere?
19:56
Are we allowed to talk about Jesus?
19:57
Like those are things that were not questions, even 20 years ago, but, but here we sit in
20:02
2018.
20:03
And as we move forward, those are going to be questions that continuously come up.
20:07
So we can assume things like this will continue to go in that direction as well.
20:11
The third thing I wanted to bring up is basically as the youth become increasingly less resilient,
20:17
the problems will be exacerbated.
20:19
So this kind of goes into the last thing.
20:20
And we talk about resilience on this podcast, obviously all the time, but the youth are
20:25
getting weaker, right?
20:27
Kind of go back to that podcast where I went into that, that poem, which is basically, you
20:31
know, hard times make strong men, strong men make good times, good times make weak men,
20:36
weak men make hard times, right?
20:38
It's that type of a thing like right now as, as a country, the strong men, you know, basically
20:43
we have weak men that are making hard times for us right now.
20:47
Because again, if you have a kid today, as they're growing up, like they're not having
20:51
to go search for food, they're not having to defend their land against intruders, they're
20:54
not having to do some of the things that, you know, some people several generations ago
20:58
had to do, you know, they're not even thinking in terms of how they can serve their country.
21:02
It's only how they can serve themselves, right?
21:04
Like that's kind of where we find ourselves.
21:06
But a lot of that is just coming down to resilience, you know, we talk about a lot and I'm sure
21:10
you guys have complained a lot about the every kid gets a trophy generation.
21:13
But part of you, a lot of you guys are feeding into that.
21:16
You're still taking them to tournaments and letting them get those trophies, aren't you?
21:20
Like, you know, I remember whenever that player for the Pittsburgh Steelers, James Harrison
21:25
came out and said that if his boys basically got trophies for not winning or not placing
21:29
at a tournament, he was going to make them give them back and he was destroyed for that.
21:33
He was absolutely destroyed for that, right, but why?
21:37
His kids became more resilient in that moment, handing back that meaningless trophy or that
21:41
meaningless ribbon or that meaningless medal, right?
21:45
And so as the youth become less resilient because of how we treat them, because of how
21:48
the schools treat them, how the schools basically say, oh, you know, you're not, you know, you
21:54
didn't do your homework, but that's okay.
21:55
It has nothing to do with the fact that, you know, you just didn't do it or that your
22:00
parents didn't push you or that you didn't push yourself.
22:02
It's because you have a learning disorder or it's because of how you were raised or it's
22:05
because of the socioeconomic status of your parents or because of your race or because
22:09
of your gender or because of your whatever, we just keep giving them excuses.
22:13
These excuses are making them weaker.
22:16
So problems like this, if you can't see yourself as a resilient human being, you're going to
22:21
look for the easy way out.
22:23
So if you want to look better, you're just going to get surgery to make sure that that
22:26
happens, right?
22:28
If you want to be more desirable and look like your favorite pop star, then that's what
22:31
you're going to do.
22:32
Just think about it even this way.
22:33
Let's say you're a handsome young guy, right?
22:36
You know, you're good with the ladies, you're growing up and just, you know, dating is easy
22:38
for you.
22:39
You're one of those types of guys.
22:40
Let's say you get in a car accident or maybe an accident in a sport of some kind and now
22:44
you have a big scar across your face.
22:47
If you're a resilient guy, you're just going to embrace it.
22:49
Well, that's my face.
22:51
That's my face now.
22:52
But but what if you don't have that resilience and what if your identity was found in your
22:56
appearance and again, you've been trying to attain perfection, which what we've talked
23:00
about and you're trying to do those different things and you're trying to ground yourself
23:04
outside of this Judeo-Christian ethic.
23:06
How are you going to respond to that?
23:07
How are you going to react to that?
23:08
So that's something that we really need to be looking for.
23:11
The fourth thing I'm going to go over is if we don't teach the youth about the Amago
23:16
Day, then who will?
23:18
Okay.
23:19
And again, guys, I talk about the Amago Day from time to time and I've come to realize
23:22
that not all of you understand where where that is or where that term comes from or what
23:26
it even means.
23:27
And that's kind of part of the issue, which we'll get into here in a second.
23:29
But I did find a fairly, fairly elongated definition of that term from PBS of all places.
23:35
But I want to kind of go into that.
23:36
So it's going to take me a little bit to unpack that because it's a couple paragraphs here.
23:39
But I think this is kind of a good overall understanding while not being terribly, terribly
23:44
theological.
23:45
It will kind of give you a basic overview.
23:47
So here we go.
23:48
Amago Day.
23:49
The term Amago Day refers most fundamentally to two things.
23:52
First, God's own self-accualization through humankind, and second, God's care for humankind.
23:58
To say that humans are in the image of God is to recognize the special qualities of
24:02
human nature, which allow God to be made manifest in humans.
24:06
In other words, for human beings to have the conscious recognition of their being in the
24:10
image of God means that they are the creature through whom God's plan and purposes can
24:14
be made known and actualized.
24:17
Humans in this way can be seen as co-creators with God.
24:20
The moral implications of the doctrine of Amago Day are apparent in the fact that if
24:24
humans are to love God, then humans must love other humans as each is an expression of God.
24:31
The human's likeness to God can also be understood by contrasting it with that which does not
24:35
image God, i.e., beings who, as far as we know, are without self-consciousness and the capability
24:41
for spiritual or moral reflection and growth.
24:45
Humans differ from all other creatures because of their rational structure, their capacity
24:49
for deliberation and free decision-making.
24:51
This freedom gives the human a centeredness and completeness which allows the possibility
24:55
for self-actualization and participation in a sacred reality.
24:59
However, the freedom which makes the human in God's image is the same freedom which
25:03
manifests itself in estrangement from God, as the myth of the fall, Adam and Eve exemplifies.
25:10
According to this myth, humans can, in their freedom, choose to deny or repress their spiritual
25:14
and moral likeness to God.
25:16
The ability and desire to love one's self and others and therefore God can become neglected
25:21
and even opposed.
25:23
Striving to bring about the Amago Day in one's life can be seen as the quest for wholeness
25:28
or one's essential self, as pointed to in Christ's life and teaching.
25:32
Again, guys, this is coming from more of a secular service, so that resource, so that's
25:35
why they talked about Adam and Eve being a myth and blah, blah, blah, I know your scream
25:39
and I get it.
25:40
But that just kind of gives you a big overall idea of what the Amago Day is and the thing
25:44
I just kind of have to ask as a follow-up here is when was the last time you heard that
25:48
talked about at your church?
25:50
For those of you that attend church, which you should, I mean, and I don't mean someone
25:54
mentioning the Amago Day as part of some sort of prosperity gospel pitch or self-help context.
25:59
I mean, when was the last time you heard someone break down the Amago Day and talk about it
26:03
in terms of who we are?
26:06
Because again, we've talked about how this generation is trying to anchor itself to perfection,
26:10
but perfection in what is perfection in appearance.
26:13
We're moving away from that Judeo-Christian ethic.
26:16
Our kids are less resilient and who's teaching them about the Amago Day?
26:19
Their football coach probably isn't.
26:22
Their homeroom teacher probably isn't.
26:25
They may not even be getting it from the youth group.
26:28
And so they're just stuck.
26:30
So basically they're going through life with little bits of Christianese here and there
26:34
from either what you bring to the household or what the pastor does or what they see at
26:38
camp or those types of things, but it's not really grounding them in any way, shape or
26:43
form, which kind of leads us to the last thing here that I want us to think about is we have
26:48
to anchor in Scripture.
26:49
Oh, yeah, it's kind of a duh at the end of the podcast, but dude, I mean, that's what
26:54
it is.
26:55
We have to anchor in Scripture because again, this is an identity issue.
26:59
It's where are you finding your identity?
27:01
Is your identity found in your appearance?
27:04
Is it found in your parents house that you have?
27:07
Is it found in your grades?
27:09
Is it found in any of those things?
27:10
Because again, we don't have the issue of Snapchat dysmorphia if people are okay with
27:14
how they look and who they are.
27:17
And I just want to kind of do some some rapid fire Scripture reference here, but just basically
27:21
how do we anchor ourselves as having the identity of someone that's found in Christ?
27:25
So John 1 12 says this, but to all who did receive him who believed in his name, he gave
27:31
the right to become children of God.
27:33
Second Corinthians 5 17 says this, therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation.
27:38
The old is passed away, behold, the new has come and the last one here is Ephesians 1
27:42
5.
27:43
He predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the
27:48
purpose of his will.
27:49
So again, it's where are we anchoring, guys, like, like, where are we going to go?
27:54
Where are we going to find ourselves when we need to have those, those moments where we
27:57
are going in a certain direction?
27:59
What do we anchor to?
28:00
Because here's the thing that I can pretty much guarantee you is a kid who might have
28:06
a predisposition to want to have some sort of body dysmorphic disorder or Snapchat dysmorphia
28:12
or something like that.
28:13
If they're grounded in the reality of Christ and they have a gospel centered focus of this
28:17
world, they're not going to try to go under the knife to change their cheekbones.
28:21
Come on.
28:22
I mean, it's just find yourself where you are in reality.
28:26
But for some of these kids, their reality is so skewed because it's basically grounded
28:31
in nothing in their appearance, which will fade or their bodies, which will start to droop
28:36
in their levels of athletic prowess, which will go down as time goes.
28:40
Father time is undefeated, right?
28:41
We've heard that a billion times, but those are the types of things that we have to be
28:45
ready for, guys.
28:46
I mean, I know I got a lot of dads listening to this podcast.
28:50
You to a large degree are going to keep your kids from going this direction.
28:54
And again, I'm not necessarily saying you need to have them stop using these social
28:58
media applications.
28:59
You know, it's kind of fun and goofy to put yourself in a filter and, you know, now you're
29:03
in space.
29:04
Okay.
29:05
Now you're on a roller coaster.
29:06
Okay.
29:07
Now you have, you know, big eyes or whatever the thing is like that.
29:08
That's kind of fun and harmless for some people, but for some people, it's not.
29:11
For some people will become all consuming.
29:14
Do you want that to happen to your kids?
29:16
Do you want that to happen to their friends?
29:17
Well, part of you being a man is standing in the breach and taking some of the brunt of
29:21
those issues.
29:22
And part of that is also you sitting down with them and explaining to them what it means
29:26
to be beautiful, what it means to be found in Christ, what it means to be a child of
29:31
God.
29:32
And guys, no one else is going to do that for you.
29:34
I mean, we talk, we talk about this all the time.
29:36
It's like, if you basically shirk responsibility to your family, someone else is going to lead
29:41
them.
29:42
And this is your wife included, guys, but someone's going to lead that person.
29:46
They're, they're going to basically get feedback from somebody else or they're going to start
29:51
looking up to somebody else and they're going to have that person tell them how they should
29:54
be grounded.
29:55
Don't you want that person to be you instead?
29:57
Why?
29:58
Why would you want someone else telling your kids what to do and how to act?
30:01
Right?
30:02
That's your job.
30:03
So, so guys, I know I kind of brought something in here for you that you may have not been
30:06
identifying with, but I would just encourage you to do a little bit more research on this
30:10
subject and use this podcast as a primer so that you can know more so you can be better.
30:13
All right, guys, before I let you out of here, we're going to do a quick resilience boost.
30:16
As you know, by now, we are a men's ministry and our mission is cultivating manly resilience.
30:20
Specifically, we do that by providing content that for just spiritual, mental and physical
30:25
to toughness.
30:26
So today, we're going to work on spiritual resilience.
30:28
And so I found, you know, I wanted to kind of bring out a couple of different articles
30:31
on, on gender dysmorphia on Snapchat dysmorphia and on some, some things about finding your
30:36
identity in Christ, but I found a single link that I think helps a lot.
30:40
So it's from desiring God.
30:41
So that's, that's John Piper's deal.
30:42
So from desiring God, it's a basically a collection of different blogs.
30:47
It's called identity in Christ.
30:49
And so as you go through this, there's different sections.
30:51
The one section is lies we believe about ourselves, and then there's a little short, a few sentences
30:56
explaining that, but then there's articles that kind of came from the website identity
31:00
as a gift from God, new belonging in Jesus, united in Jesus, citizens of heaven, so on
31:06
and so forth.
31:07
And so basically there, there's several dozen articles here that I think kind of help out
31:10
with this.
31:11
So for a lot of you guys, you're going to take certain parts of what I said, or some
31:16
others are going to appeal to you, whatever the thing may be, but at the end of the day,
31:19
I think there's some really, really good things here that can kind of help you.
31:22
A lot of these articles are really, really short, and so you can take down most of them,
31:26
if not all of them in a fairly short period of time, but then think about how you can
31:29
apply those things.
31:30
How can you apply them at work?
31:32
How can you apply them within your family with your kids?
31:34
blah, blah, blah.
31:35
I mean, you know the drill.
31:36
So I think that's something that'd be really, really important for you guys to look at.
31:38
All right.
31:39
So thanks again for listening to the podcast guys as always.
31:41
Please subscribe on iTunes, SoundCloud, or Google Play and refer your friends to listen,
31:44
share this on social media and make sure you use the hashtag on down to life.
31:48
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31:57
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32:01
you like the content.
32:02
Okay.
32:03
I'm currently booking speaking engagements for the remainder of 2018 and the beginning
32:06
of 2019.
32:07
So if you want me to come speak to your team, your church, your Sunday school, whatever,
32:11
please hit me up at info@undaunted.life again, that's info@undaunted.life.
32:17
Our website is www.undaunted.life.
32:20
You can follow us on Instagram and Twitter @undauntedlife or Facebook.com/undauntedlife.
32:25
Check out our free devotionals on the U version Bible app.
32:27
Just search "undaunted life" under plans.
32:29
And as always, we want to thank the band, August Burns Red, for allowing us to use their
32:32
music library for our content.
32:34
The intro outro track on this podcast is their song, "King of Sorrow," which is off their
32:37
latest record entitled, "Fantom Anthem."
32:40
The links to all of this are in the description.
32:42
I'm your host, Kyle Thompson.
32:44
Remember, keep cultivating manly resilience, keep forging spiritual, mental, and physical
32:49
toughness, keep seeking the Lion of Teetham.