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Faith: Everyday life and extraordinary people
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Everyday life and extraordinary people
“God said, “Let Us (Father, Son and Holy Spirit) make mankind in Our image, after Our likeness.” – Genesis 1:26a, AMPC
Do you feel bogged down with life? Perhaps you’ve thought, “I do the same things every day,” or “Life is dull! I can’t wait for this day to be over,” or “Isn’t there more to life?” When you consider others, do you see yourself as being different? Do you think you’re special to anyone? Do you see yourself as just an ordinary person? Do you feel loved?
When I left my house the day after the storm the media called “the blizzard of the year” and watched the water as it rapidly ran down the sidewalks and streets, I thought of the difference the sun makes when it touches the snow.
Then another thought came to my mind: “What a difference the Son makes when He touches our lives.” He changes our everyday existence into lives filled with Himself, and our lives become filled with meaning and purpose. Then we begin to see ourselves not as just ordinary people, but as extraordinary. We begin to see ourselves as God sees us: as persons of value. Our sense of value should be based solely on the fact that we are children of the Most High God, who made us as persons of value when He created us.
Genesis 1:26 tells us that we are made in His image, according to His likeness. He sees our potential, and we are His prized possession.
No matter what happens in
your life or in the lives of those around you, focus on who you are in Christ.
Some days that is difficult to do. Many influences compete for our identity. Yet I also know from experience how focusing on who we are in Him changes our outlook, improves our lives and gives us freedom from the weight of earthly expectations. I encourage you to stay focused on how much you are loved and who you are in Him, the One who created you.
God wants to fill our lives with His love. When we are transformed by His love, it will naturally overflow and touch those around us. He wants the best for us now! We don’t have to wait until tomorrow or next week to know His love and let Him change us into extraordinary people.
Be energized today by His love. Let His love make a difference in your life and in the lives of others around you. Step out of the old mold of everyday life and into faith. Let God show you how to live your best extraordinary life. God loves using “ordinary” people like you and me to do His will. Today you may not feel extraordinary, but remember—you serve an extraordinary God. ■
FAITH MOVES
BY KAY OWEN-LARSON, PH.D Kay Owen-Larson is an ordained minister with Crossroads Ministries USA in Colorado Springs. Email her at Kay@CrossroadsUSA.org
Tech rules of the road
How to survive a grown-up road trip with your parents (or your kids)
In the past two months, I’ve taken both of my parents on week-long road trips to knock sites and activities off their bucket lists. Doing so knocked a couple of items off my own bucket list as well.
In October, my brother and I took my dad to various air museums in Southern California. In June, my aunt’s wedding gave my mom and me an excuse to travel back to a region in Oklahoma and Missouri that she considered “home” before she moved to Colorado in her early teens.
Each trip was an adventure in the traditional sense, but it was also the type of adventure that can only be lived when you combine two or more members from differing adult generations into the same vehicle for long periods of time.
This month’s column includes as much observation about technology as it does advice. I hope it helps you use technology to survive a road trip with your grown family, sans kids.
RULES FOR TECHNOLOGY
Remember that technology is a tool. If it isn’t making life easier, you should leave it at home. The list of technology necessary for entertaining kids can be endless. Adults are much easier.
The purpose of technology on a grown-up road trip is not to entertain or pass the time; it’s to make the trip safer, and to escape emotionally or mentally. The latter of the two will likely never happen, so taking along an iPad or loading music or an audiobook onto your phone to listen to when you get bored is usually a waste of time. Some people can all agree on music. Those people are not family. Even if they say they don’t care what you listen to, someone always does.
The technology you may want for a grown-up road trip is short: a GPS (not the one that is built into your phone), your smartphone and any charging or connection cables they require.
The dedicated GPS is an extremely handy piece of technology. Unlike the GPS that’s built into your phone, a standalone GPS will work whether or not you have cell service. If you’ve never had a family argument while trying to figure out which way to go in the middle of the country where you only have one bar of cell service, then you have missed one of the finest bonding experiences known to modern navigation.
If you do have a dedicated GPS, only refer to it if nobody else insists on using their own map or other devices. This is because the person who insists on using their own map holds in their hand the most accurate navigational device ever invented. If you want peace while navigating, trust me on this.
A smartphone has other uses that can make the trip handy. For example, you can book a hotel, check gas prices, look up points of interest and even call for help should you get stranded. Again, phones only help if you have service. If you get stranded without service, a text will often go through when a call won’t.
IF YOU GET STRANDED WITHOUT SERVICE, A TEXT WILL OFTEN GO THROUGH WHEN A CALL WON’T. SOME PEOPLE CAN ALL AGREE ON MUSIC. THOSE PEOPLE ARE NOT FAMILY.
RECORD THE EXPERIENCE
There are some fun gadgets that I suggest packing to make your road trip more memorable.
I love GoPro cameras. They can be mounted anywhere in the car and they offer standard video recording, still photography and timelapse options. I have a timelapse video from both road trips that I took my parents on. Sometimes I recorded the road, sometimes all of us in the car, and other times I just set the camera for a timelapse of our activity at one of the destinations.
I also love portable gimbals. A gimbal is a self-balancing monopod for your camera phone that you can walk with. No matter how fast you move or how much you shake, your video footage will be steady. This can make videos of a city walk or natural park hike easier to watch. Whether you keep a journal in your phone’s notes app or you create an epic documentary of your adventures, remember
that everything you see on the trip will likely be exactly the same 100 years from now—except the people.
During those hours in the car, don’t just tell stories, capture them. Do your best to make the camera and the smartphone regular parts that become invisible. If you want to take pictures your family will look at and videos your family will watch, include the mundane interactions you had throughout the trip. I guarantee, someday, you or your kids will play the recording of Dad and Aunt Janet talking about how bad the sandwiches were at the roadside diner that day, not because it’s interesting or entertaining, but because it’s the closest they can get to having those mundane moments back again. ■
A portable gimbal for cell phones.
TALKING DIGITAL
BY ADAM COCHRAN
Send your technology questions to Adam in care of Life After 50, or email him directly at AdamC@TalkingDigital.org
