I have always been amazed at how photographers can capture such amazing, seemingly magical moments by pressing a button at the precise moment that a breathtaking event occurs.
My recent exploration of cameras has pulled back the curtain as to how this actually happens. First, there is a portion of time that is less than a second. What I mean by this is you don’t just have one second to take a picture. You can take pictures in fractions of a second. One of the cameras I want to buy can take over 20 pictures in a single second.
Humans typically blink in a tenth of a second. So you can quickly see how over 20 pictures during that second can get around one of many problems that can occur if you were to only snap a shot one time. Cameras also come with a buffer. This can hold those 20+ photos that are coming in every second for multiple seconds. The camera is taking in pictures faster than it can permanently write them to storage so it needs a place to hold them while you are still capturing.
Once the buffer is full, or once you are done taking the pictures, it will then write the pictures captured to the camera storage for you to sort through later. This can amount to hundreds of photos all captured in a matter of seconds. And this explains how its done. They just hold down the button and let the moment unfold before them. A bird in flight, a baseball swing, a shooting star, that perfect smile…
I used to think that photographers had to stop, pull out their camera, turn it on, point, focus, and then press the button one time and hope that they were lucky enough to catch something good. And if they missed. If they were too early or too late… it was gone forever.
I tried photography years ago and found it frustrating because my images were always blurry and I felt like I missed every opportunity. I feel like many of us live our lives like this. We think we only get one shot. And if we muster up enough of whatever we need to take it and it doesn’t go so well, we are through.
We only give our marriages one shot. We give our friends one chance. This situation gets only one round from me. And if it gets painful, or hard, or frustrating… I’m out! Maybe we give it two chances or three, but the end result is the same. We know how to quit. We are experts at giving up. Wasting time on fruitless things is not something we like to do.
Whats worse is we give up on ourselves just as easily. We get tired of making the same mistake over and over and over and we can’t comprehend how anyone could accept such failure. Peter said that he does the things he should not do and he does not do the things he should. I appreciate him sharing that. It gives me hope. I get the sense he is constantly at odds with himself.
God is the God of second chances. But also third chances, forth chances, hundredth chances, and beyond. Much, much beyond. We cannot out-sin God’s grace. It doesn’t mean we should try to, it just means we have hope if we desire a fresh start with our Father in heaven.
I want to encourage us to not only give others a chance, but to give ourselves a chance… lots of them. God’s buffer never fills up. If we can understand how He extends grace to others, remember that works for us too. Bluntly put, we aren’t the exceptions we often think we are. He loves us and forgives us when we seek that. All of us.
My Companion 