Lighting and filters.

In photography, lighting is everything.  The light in which you look at a subject creates the mood and the feeling of the scene.  It isn't the other way around.  The vibrancy of the subject doesn't create the lighting.

Life is sort of the same way.  The brightness of our lives--our feelings of contentment and happiness--depends less on what's happening and more on the light it's happening under. 

When a photographer walks into a photo shoot, he doesn't just go with whatever lighting the room has to offer.  He brings his own lights.  Even if he takes a photo outside where the lighting is kind of monopolized by the sun, he uses filters.  Why do we so often think in life that what we see is what we get?  That whatever happens in life has to determine our outlook?  That the light that's there is the only light we can use?

In Christ, that almost isn't even an option.  When we come to know Him, He changes our filters.  He becomes the light through which we see the world.  Our views on life are no longer determined by our financial situation or health or job or anything that's out of our control.  He sets up the lighting.  He places the filter on the camera.  A difficult coworker becomes a person who needs Christ.  A lost job becomes a chance to follow our dreams.  A traffic delay becomes a time to listen.  Christ changes the way we notice things, and He also changes the things we notice.  The negative aspects of life tend to fade into the background, while the positive aspects become more pronounced.  We cherish the good moments in life and shrug off the less-than-good ones.  When we look back, we don't see the dark times but the ones His light is shining on.

Christ is doing this in my life right now, and He's teaching me how to let Him do it more and more.  Sometimes it's difficult to relinquish the final product of my photographs to Him, but the more I let Him use His lighting and His filters, the more my life looks like His masterpiece.