Envy

I hope to do a deeper study of this and have been thinking about this subject in particular regard to the "Have's" and the "Have-Nots".  Parts of my thinking about this have surfaced in recent posts, and I am still trying to reach a more "circumspect" conclusion, but this article hits one of the major things that I am processing personally...

http://www.breakpoint.org/features-columns/displaced/entry/35/16470

I am not endorsing everything in this, as I have just glanced through it for now... ...but it brings up some points that I have been thinking - except I am not, apparently, as excited about the Christian reactions that the author is observing. 

I think of things on personal levels - how does this affect my own life?  How should I adjust my thinking?  This does two things right off: 1) Keeps me from missing the logs in my own eye - or at least keeps me busy removing them; and 2) it helps me make prudent decisions before the situation hits full force in my personal finances.  (The latter assumes a national or international cause with an eventual personal effect - such as world food shortages for instance...)

Envy - hmmm... ...to be honest I might be guilty of that from time to time.   But for the most part, I happily defend those who are "blessed" with wealth and have no ill-will for them.  And there is a logical reason in addition to the Biblical that I hope to offer sometime, but for me it starts with Jesus' comment that the poor would always be with us. 

This seems like a hopeless, heartless observation coming from the Authority of the Universe.  I suspect though, that it isn't because he wants a certain percentage of people to be miserable and dejected.  Instead I think it is an indication of His knowlege of the human heart and His Omniscience or His Sovereignty.  (That is to say in short, His all-knowing nature and His predetermination of our lives...)

This is a different "poor" than the "poor in spirit" that is blessed in the Beattitudes, however.  The Sermon on the Mount is speaking of poor in spirit - a realization that we bring nothing to the table in and of ourselves.  It is, after all, the work of Christ that we are even able to believe.

This is instead the fincial sort of poor.  Poor, as in "I can't pay for stuff..." 

Funny though... ...we all kind of rise and fall a little bit with the tides of our own society, don't we?  I mean, the poor in our country are pretty wealthy by human standards against other coutnries, right?  Most of the poor among us have TV's, carpeted living rooms, one or two cars (maybe even a few that don't run out in the yard)... ...I could go on, but I look a lot like that too, and I suspect that most of us can relate to this version of "poor".  Yet, "poor" in Africa, Asia, Indonesia, etc is a different paradigm altogether.

We in the U.S. have developed a certain envy though, and it is making a collective divot in our culture.  You don't have to watch very much news to find protesters demanding this or that benefit, pundits who endorse or detest government spending, politicians who are in a full court press to buy votes, and a daily dose of news anchors reporting about the record deficits.  In spite of dramatic changes needed, we do not seem to have the backbone to make hard choices - in other words, we are not willing to sacrifice "luxuries" for even drastic necessity.

We (generally speaking) seem to be looking at the wealthy among us, justifying our needs against someone else's gains.  That, my friend, is envy.  It isn't enough to justify your thoughts by telling yourself that those rich people are really misearable wretches who stole their money from unsuspecting strangers.  The wealthy are not evil because they have money, nor are the poor saintly just because they don't. 

Most of us have been making decisions based upon our current desires, instead of looking prudently ahead, considering what the best use of God's money really might be. 

....and that, my dear friend is the real reason that the poor will always be with us.  It is a moral, spiritual as well as financial bankruptcy.  While some will be broke for their decisions to invest in the kingdom (missionaries, pastors, full-time ministers of the Gospel) most of us are broke for our decisions for much lesser motives, aren't we?  Making decisions for the present alone will eventually leave us high and dry (or sunken) as the tides of our economy ebb and flow.  Don't justify your lifestyle against those around you.  Manage your lifestyle as a steward of the Father's wealth. 

In the meantime, our Father is the owner of the cattle on a thousand hills.  It isn't mine to spend, save or invest; but where I do these things prudently, I also do it with the knowlege that He will prosper it however He sees fit.  That means that I give where He leads, I spend to take care of my family and I invest so that someday, I leave a heritage for my family - spritual and immediate.  It is His to give, His to lose, and His to bless.

Cold Photo Shoot (Take II)

Lance took me along on a shoot yesterday.  It was cold enough to make 20 degrees Fahrenheit feel really nice.  Lance is really good at finding color in an exposure - something that I could not, and knew it.  I would point and grunt, "Hey, you need to get this one..."

I did get a few that I liked.  I shot in RAW +jpg, to learn the differences between the two.  I am also learning about basic post-processing.  For a guy that learned to shoot with film, digital is both a gift and a curse. You can see the exposure immediately, and at least get close quickly.  At the press of a button, you can change the focal point, the shutter speed, the aperture and even the film speed. The flexibility and clarity is really amazing to me.

In comparison, shooting film was more like shooting with a blindfold on, and the expense of the film and its processing was highly prohibitive - at least for me.  You took your shot film for processing and then had to go pick it up a week or so later.  You try to plan on the lowest ISO that you could - say 100 on a good outdoor shoot.  If you were caught with low light conditions you could push or pull the film a bit, but you were at the mercy of the developer to mind that you had shot it as something else.  On a good day, I would shoot 4 or 5 rolls of film and get about 125 prints - most of which were throw-aways.  Now, I make up for that by shooting 3 to 5 shots if I am really trying to get one shot - something that other photographers kind of laugh at me.  But it only costs me memory.  I love it...

You would have to see these in before and after stages to really appreciate the results - at least I did...

Original .jpg - no edit (except re-sizing)

Clark Fork River 2/26/11 - edit from RAW

-edit from jpg

Though I tried to follow the same workflow on both of these, I obviously did not use the same levels.  I can say that the RAW image seemed to withstand more extremes before artifacts and noise began to be an issue. Still, both versions were pretty high quality and the editing had more effect on them than any other factor.

-edit with HDR

The third one is done with a trial version of Photomatix HDR Pro.  I am barely a beginner on editing, which is probably evident; but this photo has some fairly obvious differences in that the better aspects of higher and lower exposures can be quickly combined, which allows greater capacity for saturation and color levels changes.  Notice that the trees and mountains are lit more and have their own color in the HDR edit.  The only problem that I had with this photo was that the HDR version had the most noise and I had to mask and desaturate the snow to make it less obvious.  

I also want to point out that in the hands of more experience, such as in Lance's hands, the exposure can be taken with the edit in mind at the time of the shot. This greatly increases the photo's capabilities during the processing stages.

I learned that the slightest color on the grayest day is a huge bonus.  Shooting 99% of what we shot yesterday, but in film, would have been a huge waste of time and money.  Light has always been the biggest factor in photography, and that is the same in the digital side as well - but with the added benefits of your own edits light becomes an even greater potential ally.  

In summary, quality light and editing can produce huge variations on your shots.  RAW and jpg are both good in my opinion, but the RAW had the advantage of having seemingly less colorful noise.  I think I will continue shooting RAW for now.  I need all the help I can get.

Barns and Wealth...

I just heard a great conversation on the Dave Ramsey show and had to mention it...

Caller wondered is saving money, investing, becomes "storing into barns" vs. investing in the kingdom.  At what point does prudence become selfishness.

Dave's answer was pretty good, and worth listening to (at the end of the 2nd hour of 2/16/11 broadcast), and I can't say it right... ...so I will refrain from trying.

He did quote Larry Burkett in saying, "The difference between saving and hoarding is attitude."  He explained that it is a question of who owns the barns.  The Bible is repeatedly clear that saving and investing is prudent and expected. However, if you have "ownership" of these barns of stores in your heart, then it doesn't really matter what things you try to do with them thereafter, you will not find peace.  We are just the stewards - like in the parable of the talents.

The bottom line to me is that the amount of money that you are entrusted with is determined entirely by the Master; and He already knows both what He intends for you to do with wealth and what you will actually do with it.

He will not fail to finish His work in you, and while His many blessings are too abundant to recount, He does not over-indulge His kids to their detriment.  If it is bad for you, then He will not necessarily grant your requests... ...but He is faithful to provide, particularly comforting to those that are truly seeking His will.

The question is, "Are you being faithful with the Master's blessings, or will you, like me have to learn about it through experience and heartache?"  I don't know about you, but I can find plenty of room for improvement...

Surrounded...

I read today about one of the few righteous kings of Judah, Hezekiah.  2 Kings 18 starts off with a glowing report about his zeal for the Lord and that, unlike all his predecessors, he struck down even the high places where false gods were worshiped – even the few other good kings failed to that, leaving the high places, well, in place.  It is noteworthy that Hezekiah took pains so thoroughly.

Hezekiah also ceased paying tribute to Sennacherib, the king of Assyria, which provoked him to attack.  He tried to appease the king with gold and silver - much of it from the temple - but this was not to last.  Assyria's army shows up, its leaders telling Hezekiah's advisors that they had provoked the Lord's wrath and that they were sent to implement it.  The Assyrian king’s official then addressed the people, telling them not to listen to any reassurance of the Lord's protection Hezekiah might later offer.

To Hezekiah, things must have looked very dark.  What if the Assyrians really were delivering God's punishment as they had claimed?  The Assyrians had brutally defeated nation upon nation.  Certainly, he must have added up his defenses, agonizing over his options.  The Assyrian leaders had promised certain destruction, and in the next breath, had reasonably undermined Hezekiah's influence with the people.  The equation was simple: he could not defend his people, and he was a risk of losing the allegiance of the nation.

Things were about as dark as could be imagined, in every imaginable scenario.  But he entered the house of the Lord and sent out for the advice of Isaiah, a prophet of the Lord.

With the written Assyrian ultimatum in hand, Hezekiah “spread it out before the Lord”…

…and the Lord’s answer is beautiful and His deliverance is sudden.  That night 185,000 Assyrian soldiers were stricken by the angel of the Lord. Later, as predicted by Isaiah, the Assyrian king falls in treachery at the hands of Adramelech and Sharezer.

Later today, I listened to a sermon by Dr. Michael Youseff as he studied King David.  He contrasted King Saul, looking across the valley at a super-soldier named Goliath.  Saul was big, Goliath was bigger – much, much bigger.  Saul’s army was afraid.  Saul seems afraid too.  Enter: David, young shepherd who is first written off as naïve, then as proud.  You likely know what happened next…

David the shepherd had spent vast amounts of time in the fields – communing with the Creator.  He had experienced God’s deliverance firsthand in defending his flocks against a lion and a bear.  Goliath was nothing more…

The moral of the stories can be summed up in Hezekiah’s actions as he “spread it out before the Lord”.  Time with God to “spread it out” is the common thread in these stories.  So often, we (I) measure the situation in human terms and things can get pretty dark in a big hurry.  Spreading it out before the Lord, talking to Him about the situation is too often the last thing that occurs to us.  Whether you are in the thick of it like Hezekiah, or in the fields, prepare yourself for battle by calling in the ultimate in reinforcements.

Philippians 4: 6-7 “Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, let your requests be made known to God.  And the peace of God, which passes all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.”

This concludes my sermon to myself – one that I will have to daily repeat, I am afraid.