With the addition of our own personal camera that travels with us each minute of the day via our phone, I would expect that picture taking is now at an all-time high: the spontaneous selfie, the “capture this moment” parent photo, the daily Snapchat streak, or the the “can you believe what I just saw” photo text. All with a different purpose, but each often speaks in our place.

Picture Prompt

The interesting thing with photos is the perspective from which you view them. While one photo might brings tears to the eyes of one person, it might at the same time draw confusion from others. Personal memories may be connected with a photo for one person, while others do not connect with the photo at all. Some photos create an immediate emotional response based on background knowledge and prior experiences.

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Confusion (or maybe repulsion) might be your response to the above photo. Why would I share a photo like that? Why would I even take a photo like that? While the photo may not have an immediate place of connection with you, I instantly fall into a brain pocket full of memories. I go back to the place where the photo was taken. I return to the feelings that I had the day the photo was taken. I connect on many levels and have an immediate response.

Power of Pictures

This picture comes from a time in my life when God was challenging me in many areas. Challenging my insecurities with opportunities to use my skills for a bigger calling. Challenging my comfort zone by bringing me into a culture that was very far from my own. Challenging my faith by requiring me to trust in a situation where I had limited control. Challenging my understanding of normal.

All of those pieces come rushing forward when I look at this odd photo. Many of our photos carry a very similar rush of thoughts or emotions. A picture can take us back to that moment in time. A picture can often remind us of things that we had forgotten (good or bad). A picture can bring us back to a point in our life that was much different or much easier. A picture can remind us of a time that God provided or saved.

My Story in Pictures

When I was younger (before the time of digital photography), I remember taking my camera film to Walmart to have it developed. While picking them up, I would often scan the photos to see what had been captured in my lens-always unsure until I looked at them which photos would actually end up as keepers and which would find their way to the trash. Today, I do the same thing; my finger in the picture, a random accidental picture of the floor, or a photo that shows my worst features will quickly find its way to the digital “trash can”. I have no trouble deleting pictures that I do not want to remember or that I want to clean out of my “story in pictures”, and I hang tightly to those that deliver the memories that I want to be a part of me.

Why do we have no trouble deleting these physical pictures from our picture story, while we hang so tightly to actual parts of our life that should just as quickly be discarded? Why do we continue to allow individual “pictures” of our life to rule and determine who we are?

Just as a single photo does not tell my complete story, one moment in time also does not define who I am. My life is made of many individual pictures; some that show successes, some that show God’s grace through a failure and some that bring great happiness as I see God’s guiding hand. My life is formed in much the same way.

God came that we might have life and have it more abundantly (John 10:10). For that to occur, we must give Him full control and allow Him to take the “pictures” and portions of our life that the devil wants to use to steal our joy.

I would encourage you today to think about the life story your “pictures” tell. When you look back on individual pieces of your life, how do you view them? Do you see them with joy? Do they bring back a time you wish you could forget? Do you see a moment when God redeemed you even through your “bad hair picture day”? You determine which photos you give God access to clean out. Trust Him to throw out the ones that really need to leave your story and replace them with ones that He creates telling the story of grace and love.

” The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full. ” – John 10:10 (NIV)