Broken Crayons Still Color

 

   I know this makes me sound like a little kid, but I still get a thrill out of a new box of crayons.  And it’s even cooler if you get a box with a built-in sharpener on the back.  Sixty-four perfectly formed little sticks of potential color explosions.  There’s so much so much available creativity waiting in that perfect little box.  Whether you’re six years old and learning to color within the lines, or you’re sixteen and doing a detailed pointillism picture, or sixty and carefully coloring a picture to pass the lonely hours, crayons are just fun.

   But then one breaks, and spoils the perfect symmetry of the box. And then there’s that color that you use more than all the rest, and it’s suddenly shorter, and you can barely see it anymore sticking out of the box.  Before long, you usually end up with a pile of broken crayons, bits and pieces showing wear and tear and sometimes abuse from overuse.  They no longer fit in the box with the sharpener on the back, so you get a small pencil box and throw the broken pieces in it.  They’re not pretty anymore and have lost the thrill of that new crayon appeal, sometimes the wrapper is missing, and it’s nothing but a bear-naked crayon.  But if the truth be told, every one of those small broken pieces still color just as beautifully as when they were whole.  Being broken doesn’t mean they lost their ability to produce color.  Even the tiniest piece still produces the vibrant color it did when it was whole, but it just doesn’t last as long.  

    We’re no different than those broken crayons.  We start out in life perfectly formed little sticks of potential creativity and color.  As life goes on, some parts get broken and some are overused or abused, sometimes we lose the wrapper that tells our specific color name. Soon this once-perfect box of crayons is thrown in an old pencil box and seems discarded and useless.  People tend to want perfectly formed crayons and find digging through a box of broken pieces nothing more than unnecessary work.  Why go for the broken when you can have the new?  But those broken pieces know that story of beauty and pain.  The beauty of creating a beautiful picture of life, while suffering the pain of being broken.  

  It takes the artist to still see potential in the broken pieces.  The artist knows that those small remaining pieces can still make a masterpiece when placed in the right hands.  So give your brokenness to God and watch him turn those broken parts into a beautiful masterpiece.  He can use every part of your life, even the broken parts, to make this masterpiece shine to its full potential.

    “For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things He planned for us long ago.”  Eph 2:10 NLT

A crayon pointillism picture I did in High School.

But Then… (How to Encourage Yourself)

   This may sound a little strange, and maybe even self-absorbed, but one way I’ve found to encourage myself when I get discouraged is to read things I’ve written, or listen to recording of myself preaching.  Now don’t get me wrong, I listen and read books by lots of other preachers and have learned lots from them, but when I’m discouraged, I find encouragement in my own writing and preaching.  Why?  Because, I go back to those things that God has already dealt with me on, and things that were a revelation to me.  Those God influences in my life, that’s the grace of God.  

    King David did the same thing.    When his followers were upset with him, he did the same thing. “And David was greatly distressed; for the people spake of stoning him, because the soul of all the people was grieved, every man for his sons and for his daughters; but David encouraged himself in the LORD his God.” I Sam. 30: 6 KJV.  This verse doesn’t say how he encouraged himself in the LORD,  but I wonder if he didn’t go back to one of the songs he had written, and read or sing the words to himself, reminding himself that God was faithful.

    I’m a big promoter of journaling, and this is one of the benefits of journaling.  You can go back and see where God has been faithful in your life.   

Sometimes when you’re discouraged, you have to get all the way to the “But then…”. What do I mean by that? In Psalms 77, the psalmist was really discouraged, he felt God had rejected and forgotten him. He couldn’t even sleep at night because he was so distressed (verse 4). He felt God’s hand was totally against him (feelings can be so deceiving) then he gets to verse 11 and says, “But then I recall all you have done, O LORD; I remember you wonderful deeds of long ago. They are constantly in my thoughts I cannot stop thinking about your mighty works…”. He goes on declaring all the marvelous workings of God in the past, and that encouraged him and strengthened him in the present. 

       So when you’re discouraged, distressed, disappointed, or any other ‘dis’ in life, get all the way to the “But then…” and start going over all the good things God has done in the past for you, and the wonderful things in His Word He declares for you. Encourage yourself in the Lord. Get to the “But then…” and change your thinking to His goodness and love for you.                                                                          

They Heard His Footsteps

   

“When the cool evening breezes were blowing, the man and his wife heard the Lord God walking about in the garden. So they hid from the Lord God among the trees. Then the Lord God called to the man, “Where are you?””

‭‭Genesis‬ ‭3‬:‭8‬-‭9‬ ‭NLT‬‬

     Adam and Eve heard the Lord God walking.  What does God’s foot steps sound like?  I know in a family, you get to know each persons footsteps so well, that they can walk into a room, and you can know who it is even when you don’t see them, just by the sound of their footsteps.  We each have unique steps, almost as unique as our finger prints.  Our gait or the way we walk is unique to us.   So God walked in the garden.  Adam and Eve could hear His footsteps.  They knew it was Him.  But what does that mean?  When God walked in the garden that means His presence was there.  You can hear His presence before you even see Him or hear Him speak.  There is a hearing of His presence.

   But where was Adam and Eve?  They were hiding in the trees.  In Nature.  In the natural things of the world.  They were in fear.  They heard God’s presence and knew He was there, but they were afraid.  They hid in fear.  They hid in the natural things of this world.  

    After God’s presence came, then He spoke.  He confronted Adam and Eve in their fear.  I’m sure God knew right where they where, but He made them answer the question, ‘Where are you?”  God wants us to locate ourselves.  Where are you?  Why aren’t you walking with me.  Why are you hiding in the trees?  And who’s been talking to you telling you lies.  Who are you listening to?  Why aren’t you hearing me?  All this and more was tied into the question of “Where are you?”

    Locate yourself. Find why and where you’re hiding from God.  Even when you hear God’s presence, ask yourself, why aren’t you then walking  with Him in the cool evening breezes?   Don’t let fear rob you from walking with God daily.  Thank God Jesus redeemed us, and we can again walk about with God daily.  

   These verses imply that it was it was normal that Adam and Eve would walk with God in the cool of the day.  I thought it interesting that it was the cool evening breezes.  I would think God would walk about in the morning coolness (He does walk then too), but after the whole day has gone by and things have cooled down, there was God walking about in the garden.  He was doing a ‘walk about.’  Which means an informal stroll among a crowd conducted by an important visitor.  This crowd was only two people, but He was a VERY important vistor to the garden.  The very creator of it all!

   We don’t understand, and have no comprehension what it would be like to walk and live in perfection.  We live in the world that’s been ‘fallen’ for a long time.  But then, it was perfect, because God always creates perfect.  But listening (hearing) lies caused it no longer be perfect.  When Adam sinned, the world around him fell too.  Our actions, our sin, causes not only our life to have consequences but all around us.  Our children, our friends our little world, is effected by us.  So let it be a good ripple effect, not a bad one. 

    It all gets back to what are we hearing.  Are we hearing God’s footsteps in our life?  Do you know Him enough to recognize His footsteps, as he walks into your garden?  Hear Him.  Get out from behind that tree, and begin walking with Him!  The sound of His footsteps comes before Him speaking into you life.

   One further thought.  In a church setting, God’s presence often comes in before “He Speaks.”  Hear!

 

Life in HDR

 

One of the few photos I ever did in HDR

 In photography, there is a process to produce a photo with High Dynamic Range.  Thus HDR.  To accomplish this, a photographer takes a picture under-exposed, at exposure, and over-exposed, and then in post-production combines the multiple photos into one photo, giving the photo a much more dynamic appearance.  

Our eyes see more layers of shadows and details but a camera can not capture that all at once,  like our eyes.  Cameras just don't have the dynamic range that our eyes do.  

    Our perception of others is much like a camera.  We don't have the ability to see the depths of light and dark in a person's life at first view.  Sometimes we're seeing them in that underexposed time when everything is dark, and very little light is visible in their life.  Other times, they seem happy and joyful, and everything is going great just a ray of sunshine. You think that person never has had a trial or hard time in their life.  And then there is the perception, that they are just middle of the road, nothing bad or good ever enters their lives, but just steady.  None of these perceptions of someone are correct.  Our 'people' viewer is much like the camera.  It can't pick it all up in one shot.  So give people some slack, and don't judge them by their present condition, it's only one snapshot and exposure time in their lives.  Our lives are so much more than that.  We have depth and shadows and light that aren't always visible in one shot.

  "So we're not giving up. How could we! Even though on the outside it often looks like things are falling apart on us, on the inside where God is making new life, not a day goes by without His unfolding grace." 2 Cor. 4:16 MSG

Both of these shots below were taken within seconds of each other and then combined for the photo above.  Just the amount of light I let into my lens is what made the difference.  How much 'light' are you letting into the lens of your life?  Let the light of Jesus and His Word shine on your heart and life!  It will bring you into a High Dynamic Range of Life!

One of the overexposed shots I used to combine for the HDR final picture

One of the underexposed shots I used.