FRIDAY, JUNE 23, 2023 - PHOTOGRAPHY? (SPIRITUAL THINGS)

 FRIDAY, JUNE 23, 2023 - PHOTOGRAPHY? (SPIRITUAL THINGS)

When I was in high school, a friend helped with pictures for the student newspaper.  He worked in a dark room and developed the pictures.  Remember these were the days before instant pictures - days of film, elaborate cameras, and newspapers were in black and white.

Of course, you didn’t want to take a roll of film out of a camera until you had taken an entire roll of pictures.  That meant my friend either took a lot of pictures of the same event (say a track meet or play) or the roll of film stayed in the camera for weeks until you filled up a roll.

With a student newspaper that was published twice a month, my friend needed to take out his film a few days before the deadline of the paper.  If this was say January, pictures of homecoming were outdated.  (I remember the Rolling Stones had a song “Who wants yesterday’s Paper” - meaning that news and life keep moving on).

I went with my friend into the developing room a few times.  I’m not sure what all the chemicals were.  Black and white film development included developing baths, stop baths and fixers, intensifiers, reducers, and toners.  (Yes, I had to look that up) 

And, there were the aromas of the dark room - those chemicals all came with unique odors. There were specific activities and lengths of activities.  If a roll of film sat in a developing bath too long, the pictures would be too dark, and not long enough, the pictures would be too light.  And, of course, he was making negatives of the real item - so what was light in the real-life picture was dark in the negative, and what was dark in the original would be light in the final picture.  So, the photographer needed to be able to see a finished version that was really the opposite of what it would be.

Now, on Fridays, I write about spiritual things.  Let’s say the pictures in my mind are like the images captured by my eyes.  Maybe they need to be developed better in the “dark room” of my brain.  I know some pictures are etched upon my brain and might be hard to “unsee”.  

My eyes, like the lens of a camera, let in some light.  With cameras, in poor light, the photographer might open the lens wider and take a longer exposure.  (The photographer might have to be patient and not move the camera).  And, with bright light, the camera might need to shut the lens down a little.

So, what might that mean for us?  

First might be “What are we looking at?”  Photographers might move to get a nicer picture.  I have a friend who uses a drone for pictures - getting a birds-eye view of a particular item.  The old adage of GIGO - “Garbage in, garbage out” applies to pictures - and to our brains.  What is getting in our lens?  

I know with my iPhone camera there have been quite a few pictures where my finger is partially over the lens - so the pictures have a blob where my finger was in the way.  I’ve also taken pictures of the floor by mistake and ceilings.  

I need to focus on my pictures - and I need to focus on what gets into my brain. 

*****

Matthew 5:29 says “ If your right eye causes you to stumble, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell.

It seems to be a GIGO situation.  Let good light (and good images) come into your mind.  

I write about LOVE WINS.  My filter is love.  If I let hate come into my brain, it negates the love that is there.  If my ears allow hateful messages into my brain, it might fit into Matthew 5:29K (Karen’s version) as “If your ear causes you to stumble, cut it off and throw it away”.  

But, like my photo-taking abilities - sometimes my filter is off or not working properly 

And sometimes what might look good on the surface when it gets inverted and passed through the developer, fixer, and toners might also be garbage.  

2 Corinthians 11:19 adds  “And no wonder, for Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light.”

I am a human being - and I can make poor judgments, I can think something is good - when it isn't.  I can think something is agape love, but under the surface, it isn’t.  

Philippians 4:8 says, “Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.”

*****

Lord, help me to be an agape lover, a lover in YOUR IMAGE and LIKENESS.  Let me verify what comes into my mind to see if it is true, noble, right, pure, lovely, and admirable.

Now abides faith, hope, and love and the greatest of these is love.