Tony, Cris and I had an amazing time of fellowship, fun and sightseeing on our trip to San Fran, Napa Valley, REDDING, and Lake Tahoe. The trip was refreshing and brought a lot of levity to work and life stress, but as we reflected on some things, the trip really brought me some perspective on who I am and who I want to be. Tony and Cris have really helped me tremendously work through issues that I need to work and have often been too lazy to pursue and that is one of many reasons that I love them, but back to perspective... Lake Tahoe is expansive, breathtaking and majestic. Pictures rarely do it justice and yet I pursue shots that might capture a glint of the majesty. As the sun was getting ready to set I was jumping all over the place, climbing and falling in the snow trying to get good pictures. It was bright and so I had borrowed Tony's chic sunglasses to minimize the glare in my eyes. As I lined up a picture in the view-finder and snapped the picture, I was inevitably utterly disappointed whenever I'd look at the LCD and see the miniature version of my picture, washed out, not terribly crisp and completely uninspiring. After several frustrating minutes of this, I decided to try some trickery and placed Tone's sunglasses in front of the camera lens b/c I was desperate to see on film what my eyes saw through those shades. These two pictures were my favorite to see the contrast between the two (yes, some of it has to do w/ my lack of understanding of white balance thank you :P ) Regardless, it is astounding to witness the power a thin piece of plastic has in completely transforming a landscape and changing your entire outlook. Millimeters of tinted glass changing the refraction gradient completely transforms the expansive lake in majestic and breathtaking fashion. One infinitesimally small lens in relationship to the hundreds of square miles of lake surroundings has the power to completely change everything. So i often I keep my lens cap on or I've got my gospel sunglasses on my head while I'm squinting and struggling to contextualize the spiritual landscape that God has perfectly and personally equipped me for. Thank goodness for moments of clarity, conviction and reflection to step back admire God's work in my life and in creation and worship Him.
