Candid pictures can reveal quite a bit about. When one knows they are going to have a picture made one usually makes a pose. We will always try to put the best face forward when we have fair warning. However, a candid shot catches you in your normal pose of life, what you look like off camera when you think no one is looking. I took my staff on a mission vision trip. Pictures were taken to make presentations when we got back to the church. I was surprised when I saw one picture with me included as I thought I was being careful to stand well out of camera range.
The picture was one of a teacher who is involved in a ministry that provides food to needy children. I have known and worked with her for years. We share several things. We are dedicated followers of Jesus, we love to help people, we have a zest for life and we both have been miraculously saved from an early death. More about that in a moment, back to the picture where I thought I was standing out of the picture until I saw the presentation at my church. It was a complete surprise. I thought I was well out of camera range. The picture would just be of her. There I was standing in the edge of the photo. looking away with a big grin on my face.
As the pastor of the church I am somewhat public, like it or not, and my picture pops up often. I do think we could do something more attractive to draw members but that is another matter. A member once remarked, “You are always smiling!” I hadn’t thought about it but, I guess they were right. I smile a lot. I don’t know what I was smiling about in this shot; my wife says it looks like I was up to something. I admit, I am often ‘up to something’. Often I’m thinking of a way I can do something to bring a smile to the other person in the room, I think joy should be shared.
As a believer there is no reason NOT to smile a lot. Life does have its troubles. Jesus tells us it rains on the just and the unjust. However, when one has faced their own mortality as Jenny and I both have done you learn not to sweat the small stuff. When you are a follower of Christ, as we both are, the WORST that can happen is you die, and go to heaven forever! How bad is that? You just gotta smile!
The teacher in the picture where I am caught smiling is a sister in Christ who shares an easy smile because she survived a severe allergic reaction that placed her in a coma where she could not breathe, use her muscles or communicate but could hear the doctors say that she would not make it. She fooled them. She had to learn to talk, walk and eat again as well as smile. I had three aneurysms and a rare renal artery disease that were undetected apart from a rare & unusual kidney stone that led to other tests. My doctor told my wife, “This is what we normally discover during the autopsy as we wonder what causes a man to die in his sleep or suddenly drop dead seeming healthy in mid-life. God has something yet for him to do!”
II Corinthians 1:4 tells us God comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we have received from God. The Greek word for comfort literally means ‘stand beside’. God may not remove troubles in this sin-scarred world but he promises to stand beside us. Then he connects us with others who walked through similar troubles or are may be walking through similar troubles so we can stand beside them as their comfort.
When you truly realize each day is a gift and God is standing beside you it is a joy to stand beside others and have them stand with you. Every day he gives us breath is filled with purpose. When troubles come, God is standing beside us helping us learn and grow. You are going to make it. Even in the midst of darkness, someone named David called it the valley of the shadow of death, God is there. You can manage a smile knowing God is with you. He promises in Hebrews 13:5 never to leave or forsake you. When we learn and grow from those valleys he leads us to stand beside others in their troubles to help them learn and grow. You just gotta smile!
