It was quite the day when my dad, just home from the war, was able to purchase a Kodak Brownie movie camera.
In a previous column I told how royalty visited our hometown in those days. To top it off, my mother’s cousin presented the bouquet to Her Majesty. You know where the camera was pointed that day.
A little later the Brownie was used again, this time to capture my sister and me, little tykes that we were, frolicking in the grass. But somehow the film had been rewound instead of being advanced and Voilà! The one scene was superimposed on the other.
We appeared to run smack-dab right into the princess! Amazingly she didn’t mind. The fact was, two layers of reality were rolling simultaneously across the screen.
As I thought about that double-exposed film the other day, it seemed to be a parable of life as we experience it.
Imagine this. It’s a gorgeous spring day. Blossoms dance in the breeze. You’re heading to work, looking forward to a productive day. Your favorite song is playing on the radio. You think to yourself, It’s good to be alive.
Then out of nowhere a grim specter forces its way onto the screen of your mind. Something dark, foreboding. Maybe a filthy thought, a bitter hurt, a sudden stab of anger, a chilling fear, or a nagging worry. The Bible calls them “sinful desires, which wage war against your soul.” (1 Peter 2:11, NIV)
It’s as though two worlds regularly collide in the movie that’s always running through your mind. What’s going on?
The fact is, we’re all living a double life. There’s the physical world around us, but another very different world going full tilt on the inside. And it’s largely how we respond to that hidden world that determines the final cut of our true biography.
That’s why it’s possible to have a 10,000 square-foot designer house but a squalid war zone for a home. You can be the wealthiest guy in town and a spiritual pauper simultaneously.
To spend all your time tending to the outside but ignoring the real you inside is like buying an expensive ring, tossing it in the gutter and treasuring the velvet box it came in.
Jesus said, “What good will it do a person if he gains the whole world, but forfeits his soul?” (Matthew 16:26, NASB)
But here’s the problem. It seems a lot easier to fix the outside – visit the gym, call the plumber, buy a new outfit – than change the inside, doesn’t it? Paul wrote, “I don’t really understand myself, for I want to do what is right, but I don’t do it. Instead, I do what I hate.” (Romans 7:15, NLT)
After you’ve tried (and failed) with the self-help and pop psychology stuff, try Jesus. His offer is to erase the old horror flick, make us new on the inside, and install an amazing Director called the Spirit. His script is the Bible, and we’re just to follow directions. From now on, if you “walk by the Spirit,…you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.” (Galatians 5:16, ESV)
As you’re “transformed by the renewing of the mind,” (Romans 12:2, BLB) what you seem to be on the outside begins to match who you really are inside.
Goodbye double exposure.
Jabe Nicholson of Starkville, an author and publisher, loves to engage with people on life’s key issues. Reach him at [email protected] or visit www.uplook.tv
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Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 29 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.
