I am a definite amateur, but I enjoy photography and use a couple simple photo editing programs to improve my pictures. Photo looks too dark? I use my “brightness” feature and can make a gloomy day turn into a sunshiny one.
I get a great snapshot of the ocean at sunset, but something looks cockeyed. Could it be because I didn't hold the camera level? The “straighten” option allows me to fix the horizon. Haze, fog or even smoke that day? I wave my wand, and it disappears.
To say nothing of the “crop” feature. Didn't want that Men's Restroom sign in your otherwise lovely scenic? Easy peasy: crop! And how did that sloppily dressed chubby lady get into your picture? No matter; crop her out.
Now one program on my laptop even lets me delete stuff out of a photo. Power lines intruded on many of my landscapes. Erased! A blemish on an otherwise beautiful face? Gone!
You’ve probably heard the phrase “Oh, it’s been photoshopped.” We’ve come to use that as a verb to convey such monkeying with a photo. It’s sometimes controversial, but I’m loving it.
If I don’t want to spend time on the specifics, I choose “Auto Enhance.” With it, I can choose one of 16 options the program thinks I might like. Click.
Editing makes me look like a better photographer than I am. And features are being added; even most of our smart phones offer some of this almost magical ability. If you haven’t already, try it.
But this is not an article on how to improve the picture you took of Aunt Sally and Uncle George at the lake – or the picture of your grandkids posing at the Grand Canyon.
No, one day when I was photo editing, I thought “Wow, wouldn’t it be marvelous if it were half this easy to edit my life – maybe to correct some of my blunders?”
When I’m indulging in a pity party, making my personal skies gloomy when I wouldn’t have to, I’d love to lighten and brighten my mood as quickly as I have done that with thousands of photos.
When I’ve been careless in how I talked to people, how about this: Could I just crop that out, please, with a click of my mouse?
Maybe you’d love to get rid of fog that’s clouding your vision and decision-making, choosing better clarity. Want to eliminate something you wish you’d never done? Click. Gone!
Let’s say you’ve allowed your life to get out of balance due to lousy priority choices. Or perhaps you’ve messed up a relationship to the point where now it’s a sticky conundrum. In either case, what if you could just click on “straighten” and it would all be straightened out?
Well, instead of dreaming about it, I’m here to say that you can (to some extent, at least) brighten, add vividness, clear the fog, delete stuff and straighten things out.
What you’ll need to click is prayer. Prayer can’t fix everything (e.g., sometimes you have to live with the consequences of a bad choice), but it can bring you freedom as you roll what’s bothering you onto God’s shoulders. It can’t erase the past, but it can help you accept it and focus on the future.
Of course, any analogy breaks down, but if you can bear with me . . .
Prayer can bring you the following: peace when disturbed, comfort when sad, wisdom when confused, and joy even when problems assault. And, believe me, this is only a partial list.
Repentant prayer will bring you forgiveness. Prayer for others can bring you amazing answers. If you’ve never received Christ as Savior and Lord, prayer can even bring you redemption, an exciting relationship with Him, and eternal life.
“Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.” Phil. 4:6 (NIV).
Oh, and the “editing software” for prayer is free. You just have to use it.
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