I taught confirmation last evening and brought along a photo from our wedding day. Now, we were married almost 13 years ago, so somethings have changed in that photo. The biggest change is actually my hair! I totally had the “Chandler Bing” from Friends style to my now infamous spikey hair. Needless to say the 8th graders thought it was hysterical and to be honest, I do look a bit like a tool (thankfully I married exquisite and timeless beauty!).
The thing about that picture is it captured a day in our life. A day full of hope and excitement and unbelievable potential for the life we would share. When I look at that photo, other than laugh at my hair, I’m reminded of the promises and of the things we’ve experienced. As much as that photo is a glimpse at the past, it still is a window into the future. That picture from 1998
, still points to a future and a hope and a potential for what may come.
A picture is an amazing thing that has the power to help us remember but also propel us forward to a future – to a goal – to a vision. I feel that I’ve talked a LOT about vision in the past year but I keep coming back to the idea that there is this unescapable direction that God gives to His kids about how things were intended to be. I can’t help but read Scripture and over and over again get this feeling that there is a way and yet it’s not yet being achieved. Sometimes, it leads me to ask questions like “Is God really able to change stuff?” or “Can the church really make a difference?” I mean you don’t have to look far out your window to see the hurt on faces or just in the rest of creation itself.
When these thoughts hit me, it’s really easy to get down and overwhelmed by even innocuous circumstances. Therapists call this thought train “stinkin-thinkin” and it’s when a simple thought takes us to a place that is down and out rather than have any kind of hope for progress. When I rationally think of my “stinkin-thinkin” and engage the amazing experiences of God’s grace, mercy, love and healing then I see what’s actually going on. I realize at that moment that I have a choice, will I believe this down and out voice that seems to come from something dark and dismal? Or will I believe that there IS something better and that God isn’t finished with me or with the rest of creation yet? It’s hard to hijack those thoughts, but generally the outcome is
usually a whole lot better than the alternative.
That’s when a picture helps me. When I have something that reminds me of the good but also gives me a renewed sense of hope and a future, I’m filled with new energy, or maybe new life. I love that Jesus’ promise was that he came to offer life to it’s fullest. Notice, He didn’t say he thrusts that life on people, but that he offered it. We’ve got to reach out, accept it and let it consume us. This life is the promise of redemption – new life not just some time beyond but something that can be part of the here and now. This new life is something that can be taken up in the darkest scenarios and in the most dismal places.
One of the surest ways to remove stinkin-thinkin is to allow that redemptive passion to become the picture in your head. Redemptive passion is the choice to life abundant – it’s the story that God is telling in you and in me. It’s the picture that allows us to remember how we’ve been touched, changed, restored, and it’s the picture that causes us to HOPE again! Redemptive passion causes us to sing and praise when it’s dark and gloomy. Redemptive passion takes the window we look out and allows us to see not despair but potential.
Right now, I have a picture that I’d like to share. My picture is one where fruit is plentiful. My picture sees life exploding. My picture is an orchard, trees planted and rooted and now
producing more fruit then had been hoped for. My picture is of potential for the orchard to not just produce but to change the wild that surrounds it. What’s your picture? What draws you from stinkin-thinkin and recharges your batteries? What’s out there that is really a picture of vision?
I don’t know where you are today but whether you’re in a place of stinkin-thinkin, not-thinkin, or filled with energy and curiosity about what God is in the middle of doing, I pray that you’ll choose to take up Jesus on the offer for Life to it’s fullest. I pray that you’ll have a picture that reminds you of where you’ve been and then inspires you to hope again. I pray that your vision would become clear and you’ll see life and an opportunity to share it with others.