The other week I shot some video with my drone that took time to develop into something.

Remember the Polaroid cameras? They’ve made a little bit of a fad/retro comeback of late. 

I was at a wedding recently where the couple encouraged people to take selfies with an instant camera and place the pictures in a scrapbook for their memories.

The instant camera or Polaroid was interesting because you would take a picture of something – something that caught your attention, something that you wanted to capture and remember. You then watched as the picture was ejected from the camera, totally blank at first. 

You knew what you had taken a picture of, but you waited rather impatiently for that picture to develop right before your eyes. You wanted to see if the picture turned out, if it was as good as you hoped it would be. 

Well, I kind of did that with my drone the other day. 

I saw an old, abandoned barn in a field and I was somehow drawn to it. I wanted to take a video of it with my drone. 

There was a small farm house near it so I was cautious. I actually drove past it several times before I determined that the home was abandoned as well. 

One morning, just as the sun was rising above the horizon, I drove to the barn, parked my vehicle on the side of the road and sent my drone off to capture video of this lonely, old barn in the middle of a field.

I really didn’t know what I was going to do with the footage. I just knew that something was attracting my attention to it and I wanted to film it from several angles.

When I was done, I loaded the video on my computer … but there it sat. 

I scrubbed (scrolled) through the footage a few times and liked the shots I took, but didn’t think it would be all that interesting to just add music to it. 

Then about a week after I shot the video I got an idea. I was thinking about the barn and how lonely and empty it looked. I thought there are people who probably feel like that barn looked. 

So, with a little imagination and a little inspiration from my video, I wrote a short script about the barn.

My video was now developing into something. 

I found some music that kind of fit the mood, and recorded my voice reading my script. I cut up and spliced footage, and made some adjustments in places to the colour and speed of the video.

When I had done all that I noticed that it was something. That barn I was attracted to, that video I had had high hopes for, had turned into something. 

It took longer than a Polaroid to appear, but that video footage eventually turned into something I had hoped it would.

You can view that video by clicking here.

Here’s the thing: At some point in your life you might wonder what your life is all about. You may wonder if there is anything that will develop from it. I want to assure you that your life can develop into something bigger than you imagined it would. It can if you trust Jesus to help you develop it. Some may need to start a relationship with Jesus to get things going. Some of you just need to trust Jesus with the development of your life instead of hanging on to the raw footage. Trust Him to develop all those happy, sad, thrills, scares, wows, and ughs you’ve experienced. The end product will be worth it.

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: What have you hoped your life would develop into? Leave your comments and questions below.