Some collected thoughts and prologue to the “Strength to Strength” photo blog project.

Photo-devotionalism –

I like photography.  I guess I’m something between a hobbyist and an enthusiast – a “hobthusiast”.  I often see in my mind how I want things to appear in my photos, but lack the experience, discipline, or know-how to achieve them.  Sometimes I surprise myself.  Most of the time I sigh with disappointment and try to find an article that better explains the mechanics of a particular type of shooting.

Many of the pictures I like (mostly from real photographers) are images that evoke a particular mood or emotion in me.  Pictures are powerful.  They have the ability (like music, my other passion) to connect with those deep, ineffable feelings within us, sometimes even helping us to connect them with meaningful words or descriptions.  When you apply that to the most powerfully and deeply held spiritual convictions within us, I believe a person can be moved to a more real and transforming worship and devotion to God.  This is what I’d refer to as “photo-devotionalism”.

My desire with this work is that just maybe one of the Scriptures selected, and one of the accompanying images would help inspire you to embrace the Lord with a greater trust, a more instant obedience, and a more transparent worship.  My humble hope is that you see a new facet of God’s greatness reflected in these images as you anchor your spirit in God’s living and unchanging Word.   His Word, after all, is what gives us the power to daily face the most daunting challenges and the most intimidating adversity.  Which leads me to my next thought…

Cancer is a Bully.

It is cruel, dehumanizing, indiscriminate, merciless, and downright mean.  Like the meanest bully you’ve ever faced.  It doesn’t wait for you to be ready, and doesn’t care what toll it takes on you or your loved ones.  In fact, sometimes I think it even sadistically enjoys it.   Thankfully, God hates bullies.

As I write this, my family is facing the callous taunts of cancer.  At the same time I know a number of people who are facing a similar struggle with cancer or some other life-threatening or debilitating condition.  This “Strength to Strength” photo-devotional is especially dedicated to these brave fighters, and to any other person finding themselves in that lonely alley of life, facing down their worst bullies.

I hope these particular images and Scriptures serve as daily reminders of the power and strength of our God – the ultimate bully-defeater.  It is the Lord who fights on our behalf and who in the end, alone, wins the victory.

And this leads me to one more thought…

Where’s the Power?

Any child of the ‘80s can probably remember that emblematic marketing phrase – “Where’s the Beef?!?”  The little old lady on the Wendy’s commercials showing her disgust at the lean meat offerings of all other competitor hamburgers.  Maybe the reference is trite, but I sometimes reflect on my own spirituality and picture that little old lady looking me down with contempt and questioning “Where’s the power??”.

In 2 Timothy 3, Paul gives his apprentice Timothy a very dreary picture of spirituality in the last days.  People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, rude, treacherous, unholy.  (what’s really troubling here is he’s not talking about people OUTSIDE the church – He’s talking about people claiming to be Christians!)  He summarizes the critique with this description – “...having a form of godliness but denying its power.”

I ask myself sometimes – is that what I have?  A “form” of godliness, devoid of the transforming power of Christ?

The word in the English New Testament that is translated “power” comes from the Greek word “Dynamis” (doo-na-mis)  – the root of the word “dynamite”.  It’s the word the writers of the New Testament continually use throughout all the Scriptures to describe the strength of God, demonstrated in the real miracles of Jesus, in His resurrection from the dead, and in that very same power applied to the lives of His followers through the agency of the Holy Spirit.  It is not a power that is channeled, coerced or obtained by rubbing some cosmic genie lamp the right way.  In fact, it has very little to do with anything you or I CAN do.  It is always and only activated by our faith in Christ.

I want to be careful here.  I’m not trying to say that if you believe God enough or have enough faith that God will respond by sending miracles (I wish it was that simple).  That’s the crux of another system of theology I don’t necessarily buy into.  However, I do believe that the power of Christ is for real, didn’t end with the disciples, and is still ready to be realized and poured out in our lives today.  I do believe in the West that we underplay that power and try to make it into something much more containable and sanitary.  When we do that we are dangerously close to that prophetic epitaph in 2 Timothy.

OK, I’ll step off my preachy box now.  My point is, in the context of the metaphoric bullies we face in life, that Christ’s power is real and is available to us in our most desperate battles.  This power is accessed with simple, childlike faith in Christ (Luke 18:17), is lit in the quiet places of emotional and relational dependency on the Spirit of Christ (John 14:15-21), and is applied to every crevice of our life through daily immersion in the Word of Christ; the Scriptures (2 Timothy 3:14-17).  If there’s a formula to the power of Christ it’s that – it comes by faith in Christ, through dependency on the Spirit of Christ, and in a life saturated by the Word of Christ.

At the end of the day, if all these words of mine are just superficial, ineffective consolation than we’ve all wasted our time.  But I fervently believe with all my being that the Word of God is “… alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow…” (Hebrews 4:12).  Perhaps I believe that so much because I’ve experienced it, and I’ve seen it in the lives of others I know and respect.

So, “Where’s the Power??” – it’s in you, if you are in Christ.  It’s in Christ, by His Spirit, through His Word.  And I suppose this is the most important point I have to make with this “Strength to Strength” photo-devotional.  I don’t have the power, and neither do my photos.  But Christ does, and as you cling to that truth with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength, I believe with all my heart you will see that “dynamite” power of God dramatically demonstrated in your own life.