Tuesday, October 11, 2005

What You See Is Not Always What You Get!


I've been having fun with the little phone-sized camera. It does some interesting things besides being a camera, but the one thing I really like about it is that it is always right there on my belt bag. I think of my belt bag as an extension of me much in the same manner that a "medicine pouch" was utilized by indians long ago. Some of us still carry the pouch, but it contains modern day magic. My "pocket cam," as I have dubbed it inside the computers, is a multi-purpose tool for digital recording. It does photos, video, mp3, voice messages(mostly for me, it beats carrying around a note pad and does the melodies of inspiration at a moment's notice)and to top it off it's a web cam(I have yet to explore that function). Lately I've been giving it a shot at low light situations. Since it is the season of Halloween decor there are some outdoor pics in the above collage taken in "next-to-no" light circumstances and some evening shots at the lake. Oh, and there is one taken through a store window of a piece of artwork. That image you see behind the image is me taking the photo. All in all the testing is going well, and I'm learning what the wee beast can do. The most important thing I've picked up thus far is that no matter what the light one must hold very, very still while taking the photo. Hence, tonight's title. Our eyes are often misleading, as can be our hearts. Getting into the mode of making sure of whatever it is that happens to be in your immediate focus is as important as holding still for the shot. The world has always been a veritable oyster for those who would perpetrate deception on unsuspecting travelers. In our journey toward a better grasp of God in our lives we can be caught up in the latest craze, and unknowingly led far afield from the true destination we seek. Lately, it seems, I have been running into many people searching for the "right" way to get in tune with God in their lives. They come looking for a quick answer that will reveal the treasure for which they hunger. My Savior often encountered folks like this during the course of His ministry. More often than not the people didn't care too much for the answers He provided to their questions. Today they still don't care too much for those answers, but they are the same as they were 2000 years ago, and long before that, as well! Truth will always stand to the test of time. Deceptions will come and go, fading one after another into memory as we go about our lives searching. And therein is the answer to Alice's question. In "Through The Looking Glass" Alice asked the rabbit which way she should go. The wise rabbit asked her where she wanted to go(or something to that effect), to which Alice replied that she didn't know. The rabbit then told her(I just love this), "Then it really doesn't matter which way you go, does it?" But it does matter, and you and I are on the path of life making this incredible journey and we "want" to know what is at the end. I believe I already know, and you, also, can live in this assurance of what the end of one brief journey has in store for you. It's all there, in the Bible, just as it has always been. Watch the signs carefully, and look for the one true light that can be trusted to never guide you in the wrong direction. Christ is that light! It is to His light that I bear witness. In Christ's Love, Preacher.