A picture paints a 1000 words....but is it the whole story?

I have often quoted, “A picture paints a thousand words”, and being someone who loves photography and the arts I am passionate about how something visual can speak louder than words. But this trip I have become aware even more so about what the ‘thousands of words’ mean?  As I have marvelled and enjoyed capturing God’s beauty, I have been amazed at the words it has evoked in other people that have seen my photos.  I realise, that even though I have taken a photo and it has revealed to me many words, emotions, memories, and joys, it is just the beginning of the power of the picture. For every individual who sees that one photo I have taken in my own context, there are so many more words evoked for other people.   

Tasmania

 

Bay of Fires

One visual takes them on their own journey, through their memory, their own wonder, their own discovery, that may have nothing to do with anything I have seen in that picture and what I saw when I took it.  Again, the power of the visual.   To have them relay back to me what they are seeing, widens my own view and helps me see more.  This is the importance of sharing with each other to widen our view and deepen the experience. The sadness is that we often keep our thoughts and pondering to ourselves and those around us don't benefit from our words and feelings.  The sadder aspect is that we have come to believe that the only one who can speak is the one who created the visual and so it is a one-sided conversation. It is like shutting down the words of others as if they are not valid and worthy to be heard.

 

But there is a danger to the power of the visual as well. Of course, I take many photos to get the perfect one, so in essence I am working hard to show you only my best photo, not all the blurred, out of focus photos that don't make it. There are so many words in every one of them, so many words in the process, so many words in the fact that sometimes there are days and days of nothing and monotony to finally get that high of a great photo. 

Uluru

 

Then there are also the words others add to my photos, that are not my words or assumptions about my experience that are not the truth.  The feedback is that just because I have taken a beautiful picture of God’s natural beauty, that I must be happy and having an amazing time.  Though the moment is captured and I am thankful and full because of the visual, that doesn’t always mean I am happy and having an amazing time. The power of the visual is that it can look like it is telling a story way bigger than I am really telling. It takes over and becomes its own story and the words I feel get lost.

 

All this to say that “life through a lens” is not always a true reflection of the truth. It can be the reflection you want people to see, or in my case it is the reflection of the God I long to live for, but confess I can’t always stay in.  So often the beautiful picture is also a deep reflection and desire to fill a deep ache and hole in my heart that right now seems unfillable. Life through a lens allows me to capture what I would like my world to look like, but sadly so often it is not what is on the inside. This trip I have focused on the beauty of creation, His nature. It is something I have needed to feed my soul, and it does. Nature is a place where I feel ‘it is what it is’. It is not trying to be something else, or hide behind a cover, it feels tangibly real, when right now in my world, I don’t quite know what is. That’s all the words my photos are saying. 

Kings Canyon

Bicheno Blowhole

 

 

“Isn’t is odd we can only see our outsides, but nearly everything happens on the inside”  

(Charlie Mackesy)

 

I am not wanting to complain about the words that people are reflecting back to me, they are real and valuable and someone else’s story. I am thankful that the power of the visual gives people thousands of words and takes them to special places. But it does make me ponder on the importance of sharing with each other. The importance of the whole story, not just the highlighted bits that make me look good. I do not want to be that kind of impostor, or mislead others to feel that I am having the time of my life. Because this trip is fraught with challenge after challenge, as all of life is and we must be careful to know that FB or Instagram only tell half the story. 

 

Who are we sharing the whole story with, rather than the story we think they want hear? I am thankful for the few who walk closely with me and share all my words, the thousands that are good and the thousands that are broken and lost and hurting.  I am thankful for the many personal messages I have had over the last year, prompting me to know I am not alone. I am thankful for the beauty of creation and the safe place God provides anyone who seeks Him, whether it be in nature or otherwise. I am thankful for community, that while I am currently on my own in a van, I am deeply connected to a community of people and who have shared thousands of words over the years and months, both the good and the bad. In fact, I would say that I only get to share these pictures and have the strength to do this, because of those who carry me daily.  Yes, a picture paints a thousand words, but makes sure we are telling the whole story to someone, or the story is in jeopardy of not being real.   

It Starts in the Heart

I have had the privilege of spending time with some faith communities around Australia. I spent 4 days across 2 churches in South Australia. I didn’t realise at the time, but God knew. On the outside they couldn’t have been two more different church communities. One that met in the middle-class suburbs with members who are all either doctors, lawyers or training to be. The other was based right in the inner city with a main mission to helping and serving the homeless. One that met in a traditional church building with comfortable chairs, life groups, children’s and young adults ministry and good audio-visual. The other met in the park, bring your own camp chair and share a piece of paper with some words on it. Some of this community would have spent the morning feeding the homeless, offering showers, toilets and laundry. They had been a part of the South Australian fringe festival with the arts … sharing their gifts and being a light in the mainstream community as the fringe festival is going on all over the city.  

If you were to draw conclusions based on what you see on the outside, I can guarantee what you assume would be wrong. There may be one of those communities I just described that you may feel more comfortable in, but we must not judge and assume the heart of each person and space. 

It would be a bit like going to a wedding ceremony. Everyone looks their best, there is a certain amount of ceremony that is required for a wedding service to be complete. Some can look formal, some Informal. But there is a joining together, a commitment to each other, words spoken out by some or all, a certain amount of sitting and listening and sharing. 

But if all you thought ‘marriage’ was about was a ceremony, I can guarantee it would not last or be very healthy. No, it is in the ‘day in and day out’ that you see the heart, what really makes a community. It is in the way we love each other outside of the public ceremony that really counts. 

Love starts in the heart, but then life must overflow out of that. Life starts in the heart, but then life must overflow out of that. Faith and community starts in the heart and then life must overflow out of that. It goes beyond what the outside structure looks like.

So, when you get the privilege to sit with people in both of these faith communities you see a heart, where life overflows out of love for each other and for God and for those who do not know Him yet. 

From one lady, who, when things closed down from COVID, said, “That is not right, those on the streets need love now more than ever.  You can’t stop me. I will put a chair and table on the street and be there to pray for those who need it.”  So she did. She had no idea how and what was going to happen but for 8 months while COVID shut down the city and many ministries, she sat in the laneway of the inner city and took prayer requests and prayed for people. She said in all that time, she never heard a bad word or a rebuke toward her, but rather many homeless people said, “This is what the church should be doing”. Others fell to their knees and wanted to pray with her right there and then. 

To the young man in his 20s, who shared about how he would not be who he is today without this family of God. When he described church camp, a special event when they get together, he said, “It is the closest thing we get to heaven. Everything is so purposed towards God. You give yourself a 2-3 day window to see what humanity is capable of. To bond together and to actually build that community and be a representation of what God intended."

To the 60+ lady who couldn’t help share her passion about all age worshipping together. She said, “It is about focusing on the Lord. Age shouldn’t matter, if we focus on God we should be able to work through all the generations.” 

“The Lord your God will change your heart and the hearts of all your descendants, so that you will love him with all your heart and soul and so you may live.” Deut 30:6 (NLT)

To a 50+ single woman. What bubbled out of her when asked about her favourite memory of life together, was, “Curry nights, (she says with a warm tone), everyone mucks around, eats together and talks. It feels like family, fun. Feels like there is a lot of joy. It feels like we use the church space differently. Worshipping in just being ourselves. There’s often some creativity. All are welcome.”

These were people whose love starts in the heart and then life overflows out of that. So maybe it doesn’t matter what the ceremony looks like. 

“And I will give them one heart, and a new spirit I will put within them. I will remove the heart of stone from their flesh and give them a heart of flesh”. (Ez 11:19 ESV)

I do believe that there are things we can do to help create environments to see generations do life together, but the key for me was that each person I spoke to wanted to see that more and more.  

In my last conversations with the pastors and leaders of both these churches they said, “Please tell us what are some key things we can do to connect the generations more”. With hearts like that, God can do anything, change is possible and connections across the ages will happen and will make a difference in everyone’s heart. 

Gone Before Me

I began the 3 hour return trek to the summit of Wilpena Pound today. I knew it was a difficult walk, but I didn't think I would be scaling rock faces. The destination was clear and I walked the track alone. If you have a destination in mind, sure, there are multiple ways to get there. I mean just keep going up, it will surely get you there in the end.  But isn’t it wise to go the track that you know will be safe and will get you there in good time? I do love an adventure and sometimes you can make you own way, but this was not the time. 

And so I began following the markers. Looking for the markers was tough at times, but it was nice to know they were there if you looked. There were a number of times I got off the track, missed the markers and it led to a dead end. When the path wasn’t clear, it helped to look for tracks where people had been in the past. This helped me get back on track and assured me that I would make it to the right place. 

Especially when you are on your own, you can get lost very easily. There are some journeys we have to do on our own, but knowing the markers are there that I can trust, helps. I have been aware of how sure footed you need to be when you are on your own. One wrong step can lead to injury. In the middle of nowhere, at least if you are on the track you can be found. If you are off the track you’re not so easy to find.

When you are scrambling up rocks, you are always looking down at your feet, to make sure each step is secure and solid. So, every now and then I needed to stop and look up to check where I was, to see I was going in the right direction and just to see the view around me. I mean, how silly is it to trek up a mountain and not actually stop and see the view. This slows you down, but allows you to enjoy the journey more, rather than always focusing on the destination. 

Of course, making it to the top is a very exhilarating achievement. I stayed at the top for a long while to really soak up the view, the surroundings and the joy it gave to make it to the top. 

Besides the personal achievement of making it to the top, I couldn’t help be reminded that I probably wouldn’t have got here, if it wasn’t for those who had gone before me. Those who had marked the track, those who had painstakingly and tirelessly made steps where they were needed, smoothed the rough places and forged a way up that was accessible to others. Instead of praising myself for my own achievement - there were times when I lost my way - I was so thankful for those who had recently walked the summit and left their shoe tracks for me to find to get me back on track. I simply would not have been able to enjoy the view, the beauty or even the walk as much if there had not been those who had gone before me and to claim this achievement as completely my own would have been wrong. I know I have done this so many times before and really forgotten those who have given so much to make my trek possible. 

So many times in life, we can only achieve or keep moving forward because of what others have done. Our mentors, our early-adopters, our parents, our leaders, anyone who has gone before us.  It is a shame we don't say thank you enough, listen more and learn more from them. So often we simply put our head down and forge ahead with our own path, convinced we know best and are the only one who knows the way forward. I see it happen every day, in families, in culture, in politics, in world affairs, in the streets and homes of every city, and in the Church. 

It is no wonder throughout the Bible, God has implored us to stop, consider, slow down, follow the tracks laid out, listen and trust that those who have gone before us have wisdom and guidance that aims to help us reach the summit, rather than to hinder or stifle or stop us. The right track and the right voices and the right guidance is designed for us to succeed, flourish and find freedom and the joy I found when I reached that summit today. Today I honour those who have gone before me and I pray I will do that more and more.  Today I slow down, look up and savour the view, knowing I can only do that because others have showed me the way.