I recently saw an advertisement on TV for a new mobile phone with a fantastic camera with advanced photography software. Just using the phone, you could take several pictures of your friends and then combine the best facial images into one perfect picture, so that you didn’t have people squinting or looking away or frowning. The ad also showed how, in a picture of a child tossed up into the air by someone, the photo could be edited to show the child going even higher up into the air than what actually happened. Have something in the background that you don’t like? Not a problem; just edit it right out of the picture. In the end, you wind up with perfect pictures. Mind you, they aren’t accurate reflections of what took place, but they fit with the photographer’s idea of the best memory.
The trouble with this is that often our memories are triggered by pictures. We look at a picture and then remember so much more about the events surrounding that particular image. However, the further away we get from the date of the picture, the more our memories depend on the image that we have saved. At some point, we forget about the edits, and think that the image captured reality. That process of shifting from edited to reality in our minds is sped along because the edited photo reflected what we wanted reality to be. We are quick to let go of what was, to embrace what we wanted it to be.
It can be dangerous for us as a society to embrace what we want life to be like, instead of what life actually is. Sure, the temporary escape from reality can be highly desirable, particularly after an extremely stressful time, but that is what vacations and personal days are for. At some point, however, we have to get back to the real world and face the circumstances as they truly are. Failure to do so will keep us from ever addressing critical issues that can cause significant problems.
Doctors cannot properly diagnose a health problem if a person refuses to go in for a checkup. The noise that just started up in your car is not going to get better by pretending that it doesn’t exist. Drinking problems don’t go away by ignoring them, and editing out the water stain from the picture of your living room doesn’t fix the leak. Yes, life is easier and more fun if we’re healthy, the car works perfectly, we don’t have an addiction issue, and the roof works the way that it should. But if we hold on to what we want, instead of what really is, parts of our lives will get much, much harder.
There’s a saying that states “you have to play the cards that you are dealt.” Too many people are rejecting that, and instead are playing the hand that they want. That can only go on for so long, before reality intrudes on the fantasy that was created, and the end result can be catastrophic. Far better to live in reality and put in the effort to change those things that you would have otherwise tried to edit out of your memory. So, don’t try to sweep the ugliness of your life under the rug or wipe it out of a picture. Instead, let that image motivate you into action, and take real steps to make improvements.
Peace and blessings – Pastor Aaron