Directing the Blur in our Lives

I learned a new word the other day. I’ve been experimenting with my camera, and I’ve learned about the background blur in quality photos which gives a sharp, clear emphasis on the main subject of a photo. I just never knew it had a name.

Bokeh – (BOH-kay). It’s a Japanese word that means, appropriately, “blur”. It’s the attractive quality of the blur that is produced in the out-of-focus part of a photograph.

Our aspen tree after a snow fall

By focusing on the foreground image in the photo, the background images tend to soften, even seemingly disappear. Oh, they’re still there, but because we are so absorbed in the intensity of our point of focus, the bokeh effect blots out the unnecessary distractions in the background, often even making them beautiful and aesthetic.

It really got me thinking about focal points in life. Many times we try to focus all at once on everything going on in our busy lives– with lots of dizzying distractions derailing us from those things which are most eternally significant.  While in the photograph as well as in life, bokeh can have its rightful place as it becomes our best course of action to focus on Jesus Christ and let the bokeh effect blot out or soften the myriad of distractions around us.  

President Russell M. Nelson invited us to always keep our focus on the Savior. He said, “Our focus must be riveted on the Savior and His gospel. It is mentally rigorous to strive to look unto Him in every thought. But when we do, our doubts and fears flee.” He added, “Faith in Jesus Christ propels us to do things we otherwise would not do.” Drawing the Power of Jesus Christ into Our Lives, Ensign ,May 2017.

I like that – “riveted on the Savior…”

For some, going on a senior mission can be a fearful thing.  Fears, doubts, distractions, and just plain “life” get in the way and take center stage.  I like President Nelson’s promise, “When we focus on the Savior, our doubts and fears flee.”

With permission I share an email from a family member written recently to my husband.

“I have been wanting to say thank you for a while.  I hope you know you were a huge influence in getting (my wife) and (I) on a mission and it has been an amazing and transforming experience!

When you came to visit us after you got back from Viet Nam, we were thinking about going, but stuck in all the reasons why it would be hard to do.  You told us, ‘You just make the commitment to go and the Lord works things out.’

That was what I needed to hear and that is exactly what happened.  None of the problems in our family have gone away, but a door opened whenever we really needed one.

Thank you!!

We are happier now than we can ever remember and feel like we are where the Lord needs us!

We will think of you tonight when we are teaching English to a room of Chinese immigrants in Flushing!”

However we serve, and in whatever capacity, we have the promise that focusing on Christ will cause our doubts and fears to flee.  What great power we can have in our lives through Jesus Christ!

Bokeh.  I like the sound of it! 

(We have nine weeks left before our mission to Taiwan!)

Seekers in the Lord's Kingdom

The eye is an amazing organ.  It can focus on things near or far, small or large.  Most people have within their eye little bands or squiggly clearish threads that float around.  Perhaps you have noticed them as they move around depending on your own eye movement.  These are called “floaters”.  You may go years before you notice them, but once you first notice them, they can be all you think about – what are they, how did they get there, are they obscuring my vision? After awhile you begin to forget about them until the day comes when you don’t even remember that they are there. They are ever present, but because you are not focusing on them, your eye virtually “sees through them”. 

Photo courtesy of Flikr.com/lteachr

The Savior taught – The Light of the body is the eye. If therefore, thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light.

It seems that when we focus on the things of God, that which would obscure our path gives way and we can see more clearly the bigger picture that God has for us.  Our minds, too, learn to “pay no heed” to the challenges surrounding us as we remain fixed on the Savior.  Truly, when we love God with all our heart, soul and mind and put him first in our lives, our eyes are single and our whole body is full of light.

The Savior admonishes us, “But seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you.”

While in Thailand to attend a wheelchair distribution on our previous mission, our van sped along the road, passing beautiful fields of velvety, green rice paddies.  I was determined to get a clear picture of the beautiful scene, even from inside the moving van.  Yet as I took picture after picture, I was irritated to find the image in my camera was obscured by rows of blurry trees. 

Where had those trees come from?  They were not there when I took the picture! 

Then I looked up at the scene again – and sure enough, lining both sides of the highway were rows of small trees.  I had not seen them before.  I had not even noticed them. Not until I took the picture which focused on what was closest did I notice them.

"…when we choose not to focus on what is missing from our lives but are grateful for the abundance that’s present….the wasteland of illusion falls away and we experience heaven on earth.”      Sarah Ban Breathnach

 

So it is with life.  

If we look too closely our vision is obscured.... but when we pull back a little.....

...when we pull back and look at things from an eternal perspective, we realize we are basking in a beautiful garden.

Quoting a well-known author, President Monson said,

“Both abundance and lack [of abundance] exist simultaneously in our lives, as parallel realities. It is always our conscious choice which secret garden we will tend … when we choose not to focus on what is missing from our lives but are grateful for the abundance that’s present—love, health, family, friends, work, the joys of nature, and personal pursuits that bring us [happiness]—the wasteland of illusion falls away and we experience heaven on earth.”

May we all be seekers in the Lord’s kingdom,

 paying no heed to the obstacles,

and watch the miracles unfold before our view.