Month: January 2025

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Bringing God Into Focus

An overexposed photo of a waterfall
Galatians 6:1 (ESV)—Brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness. Keep watch on yourself, lest you too be tempted.

I love experimenting with my camera, especially using long exposure with waterfalls. Usually, though, I’m somewhere midday when it’s too bright outside for this type of photography. The photo becomes overexposed, and no amount of photo editing can fix it.

The risk of overexposure comes with a person caught in sin, too. Paul did not suggest yelling at them in public or ignoring the sin out of love. He suggested gently restoring the person.

How do we do this? We act on God’s Word. We allow our actions to shine the light on God and not on the person’s sin. Our goal is to restore with grace and not judgment.

One way to achieve this is to carry the burden of our fellow sinners—a great example of loving your neighbor as yourself. For instance, offers of forgiveness and comfort can balance critical comments from others and can enhance the person’s mental health.

Above all, a show of “love [that] binds everything together in perfect harmony” (Colossians 3:14, ESV) brings God into focus for the person we are helping as well as for ourselves.

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Pressing on Toward Hope

A winding mountain road shrouded in clouds.
Exodus 5:7 (ESV)—“The Egyptians shall know that I am the Lord, when I stretch out my hand against Egypt and bring out the people of Israel from among them.”

The arrow on the GPS screen bounced like a Ping-Pong ball. It faced north, then south, then east and west. It located my husband and I on at least three different Chicago streets. We needed only the one direction, the way to the interstate. We drove onward until the arrow meandered along the blue line for blocks at a time.

Moses and Aaron, too, pressed onward to travel to the wilderness to offer sacrifices to God. Like our route, their route to exodus from Egypt included a few trials. Pharaoh’s sorcerers and magicians repeated God’s signs—a staff into a snake, the plague of blood, the plague of frogs—to Moses and Aaron. Even once Pharaoh’s people couldn’t repeat the signs, Pharaoh reverted his promise to release Moses and Aaron along with the Israelites into the wilderness to offer sacrifices to God.

However, God had a plan for these signs and wonders: irrefutable proof of his sovereign reign.

In the trials of everyday life, the route we travel is not perfectly mapped out. Road blocks force a change of direction. Fog makes it hard to see where we’re going. Severe weather stops our trip altogether. Yet God is always leading us toward his truth during these uncertainties, toward hope.

To walk toward hope, we cannot harden our hearts as did Pharaoh. Instead, we can open our hearts to God’s divine direction and seek irrefutable proof of his sovereign reign.

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Living for God’s Glory

A street in Rothenburg, Germany, with a tower at the end of the street. People walk along the street and cars are parked in the street.
1 Peter 4:12 (ESV)—Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you.

To plan a trip, I peruse tourism websites. Sites chock-full of pristine photos showing car-free streets and no crowds. “Perfect,” I think. But then I arrive and, while wielding my camera, I mutter, “Why can’t they get out of my shot?”

The early believers thought of Christianity like the pristine photos: the beauty of an eternal reward with no suffering. Peter explained, though, that Jesus suffered for their salvation and they, too, must live for God’s glory.

Living through these sufferings builds our Christ-like character. These tribulations add authenticity to our lives, like the people and cars make our vacation photos more real. We need not be surprised when our lives intersect with people whose lives contradict our beliefs.

Through God’s glory, we learn to love these people as Jesus did. We learn to not wish away our sufferings and instead to rejoice in God’s goodness and live for him during our trials.

A street with colorful buildings in Old San Juan. Cars are parked on the street.