Forget the Varnish

today i was looking at this random picture i took a while ago of a tree in the forest behind my house. The tree has some grafiti on it and behind it, shining through the forest, was the setting sun. I didn't really think much of it when i was looking at it, it's actually a pretty crap photo becasue the lighting really sucked. But now i think that despite the apparent bleakness, that picture has potential.

"Like a photograph, character is developed in the dark."

I think it is stunning how God uses things that look kind of lack-lustre and grungy to create something glorious. It actual stuns me. Because though the forground of the picture was a little dreary and undefined, the sun behind it was clear and bright and colourful. Instead of focusing on what was truly brilliant about that picture, I chose to photograph the tree. I think our lives are like that sometimes. Sometimes we get so caught up in the here-and-now of life that we neglect God. We don't shove him out of the picture entirely, but he definately isn't our focus. And you know what? He doesn't push his way around. He just sits back behind the trees, still shining through and sometimes we don't even notice. When we look at the picture of our life and focous on ourselves, we run to God and ask him why our lives look so dull and empty and boring. But what we don't realize is that the potential for a life truly lived is hidden behind those trees. If we take the focus off ourselves and focus on he who is truly glorious and should be in the froefront of our lives, the picture will turn out much better than we could have ever imagined possible.

It's like a test. God says, "okay, here is the situation you are in" and you say, "uhh yea God! this stinks! change it please." But nothing happens, or maybe something does. For me the situation just got worse and I just felt more dull and unlively and just plain BLAH. It was gross, literally, like greeny-grey GROSS. But this morning i woke up and it was like God was right there and he was saying "maybe if you focused less on your needs and your feelings, and started focusing more on me and what I did for you things would change." And I think I almost smacked myself upside the head. What is the point of doing Lent if you aren't even going to spend time thinking about the cost of what Jesus did? What is the point of God teaching you something if you aren't even going to pay attention? What is the point of forgivness if you aren't willing to forigve others? What is the point of going into the darkroom if you don't even intend to develop a photograph?