Life In Focus…Click

Posted on by Gary Fultz

The photographer in me never seems to be satisfied. I often think I need more ingredients, different light and maybe more context. Maybe I don’t know what I need. Something with depth, something that evokes questions, something that says there is a story worth finding here or maybe something that shares or illustrates a concept. I just want it to look so nice it’s worth blowing up and putting on the wall. I do know one thing for sure; I need the right focus. No exceptions. I need the exact focus intended as the photo-maker.

One autumn evening while drift fishing in the boat, I was thinking about what makes a picture “enough”? What makes my life “enough”? I glanced up to see a large hawk land in a tree. I was a long distance from the hawk and even further from the moon coming up. Low light and I’m in a rocking boat so the odds of a picture turning out were short of miraculous. I laid down my rod and picked up the camera while the boat drifted. So many moving parts lined up perfectly for a simple picture. Moon rising, hawk constantly turning his head, boat drifting and rocking in small waves, trees swaying gently and camera hoping for that perfect still moment. For one tenth of a second with a long lens, I found “enough”. I picked up my rod again with another thought…”What if someone told us that we could someday live in that perfectly held tenth of a second forever?” Definitely enough.

Our life is worth more than any picture could be. We get our miracle in Jesus. The pieces that make life “enough” are found in Christ. Such simple but necessary ingredients will make the universe gasp when our life’s shutter is finally released. Our “life in focus” has eternal potential.

Hebrews 12:2 says to “fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith”. From a photographer’s perspective, it means we were created to be like a camera with fixed focus. Nothing is in focus unless our eyes are fixed on Jesus. Everything comes into focus when our eyes are fixed on Him. All the necessary ingredients of life, even when present, only make sense when our focus is on Jesus. All other ingredients are then given the focus intended. What a perfect picture. So much is riding on that final focus…click. Creation gasps. Our “Life in Focus”

Gary

Cut A Hole In The Wall

Posted on by Gary Fultz

What great lengths are you willing to take to live the life for which you were created?

Cut a hole in the wall, frame openings and put windows in your life. Get a big window, not a peep hole. Know what’s happening outside your space. Next: open the window and throw any insulting parrot voices out and close the window.

Build a deck to sit on and watch the world in it’s context, go by. Meditate on the words of Jesus because they have the substance of life. The words of God give us the context to live the life we were created to live. Wherever we happen to reside, in whatever circumstance we find ourselves, we have a purpose filled life to live.

Take walks in nature. It’s as close to God’s garden as we can get. Nature is not God but it’s a great place to meet and talk with him. There are overt hints of God’s character, creativity and lessons of life and insight to gain from God’s creation. Personally, I carry a camera as it helps me see more

All nature is in context with God’s word

These were my thoughts as I spotted a deer peeking at me through a hole in the woods (header picture). All of nature is in the moment. No matter the season or food source or conditions, life is moment by moment. As the leaves fall outside, I am reminded that my life is like a vapor that appears and then disappears (the big context James 4:14). In the moment I want to be in context of God’s words to me through Galatians 2:20 “I have been crucified with Christ, and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me.”

I want to live in God’s context. On the deck, at home, driving down the road, in the grocery store, talking with the neighbors and in anything I may post or read online. The life and words of Christ in me is the context which begs me to cut a hole in the wall. His love within me compels me to view the world as needing his love.

Gary

ps: I posted some pictures for free download on my unsplash site here