Perspective

Our life is like a camera. Reality will always be the same, but the way we perceive it totally depends on what lens we’re looking through. We can each be standing in the same scenery, yet capture and experience it so differently. Some see life in black and white with poor image quality and a tad too little exposure. Their life reflects their image. There are also those that see it through the highly technical and beautifully focused lens of a DSLR professional camera. For them, their image is high quality and and reflects the beauty and reality of the moment. Looking at life this way caused me to reflect on how I see the world. Is it dull or beautiful, well lit or underexposed? Do I attempt to edit and photoshop my life to make it look better so that my friends are impressed, or am I willing to share things as they truly are?

This week I have been helping my dad prepare his presentation for an Annual BYU Accounting Conference coming up. Turns out, its actually kind of a big deal. My growing up experiences were a little out of the ordinary and people seem to be taking notice. He was asked to speak on following your passion, despite being something as ordinary as an accountant. Putting together photos and doing interviews has helped me to reflect on all of the wonderful memories of those days we spent sailing through the Caribbean, but it has also brought back memories of hard times like being seasick or almost sinking off the coast of Cuba. It’s easy to look back on life and see how great it was, but even harder than remembering the good, is being willing to see it as it truly was. The point is, our minds have never and will never capture and remember life as it really is. Even a something as detailed as a photo whos purpose is to capture a moment is easily influenced by camera quality or editing. Sometimes we even go as far as to think that our future will be exactly how we picture it, like we can do that or something. What about the now? How has our past affected us, and how will our present affect our future?

In my Old Testament class, we’ve been studying about the children of Israel. What could’ve been a year long journey turned out to be 40 due to one simple thing-perspective. In one chapter it describes how the Israelites murmured and complained day after day about how it would have been better to stay in Egypt because at least they had the luxuries fresh produce and meat. They remembered Egypt alright, but half of their photo was missing. They forgot that they had lived hundreds of years as slaves to a man and people who treated them like animals. They forgot that they didn’t have the right worship how and who they wanted. They forgot that their days were spent making bricks and building temples for a God they didn’t even believe it, Yet, they remembered how great the produce was. You see, our perception isn’t reality at all. We have a tendency of either only remembering the good or the bad in our past, but hardly ever do we perceive and remember it as it truly was.

Why would this be so important? So what? Well, no matter how much we may deny it, the way we choose to look at our past is affecting our present. Like the Israelites, we may get so focused on the  good things in our past, that we let the comparison diminish the beauty of the present. I’m not suggesting that we dig up any deep dark memories for the sake of painting an unflawed picture of your past, but what I am suggesting is that we learn and move on from it. What is done is done. Yes, we had good and bad days, but today is worth living too. We can not change what happened, but we can choose what we will do with the the only thing we can control, and that’s us. Learn from the past, embrace it. Take the good and the bad and make your present and future worth living.

Too often we see other’s pictures of life and wish we had their beauty and color, all while forgetting to look at the color and skill in your own. They may have a gorgeous sunset photo, but yours may feature a happy family, something that the other never had. I’m grateful for the gospel and that it reminds me to be grateful for how far I’ve come, what I have and who I am am now, and last but not least, where I want to go. I know that as we live in a spirit of gratitude and focus on the present that we can find true happiness.