Of Being Published and Ego Trips

I've been tweeted. Or something I wrote has been. I was just published in an online article ("The Selfish Network" on Relevant Magazine). The quote was, "Is all our social networking about communicating with people, or just using them as a means to an end?"

I'll admit right off that I don't really get Twitter yet. And I'm fine with that.

I'll also admit that it feels good to be published (even if it's not for a paycheck). I've been working hard, and it's nice to see an article come to fruition.

One more admission: I have a hard time with criticism. Mainly in that I tend to take it too personally. This isn't a good trait of mine. A good trait would be to accept helpful criticism and use it to grow while letting unhelpful criticism just roll off my back.

But I too often let my ego get in the way. I like to feel loved, and sometimes I search for that through people liking what I do. So when people don't like what I do, I tend to stretch that into feeling that I'm not liked. And while that may or may not be true, it shouldn't matter. Who I am is not centered around what I do. My self-worth is not found in my actions or others' opinions of me or anything else related to my ego. It is rooted firmly in God's love for me.

I think I've written about this more than once before. But I forget. So I remind myself (and hopefully others who need to hear it as well.

One last admission: I wish I hadn't written the article on the "sins" of networking right now as I'm looking for a job for this fall.