Isn't it incredible that a reflection can live behind us and in front of us?
To reflect is not only to look back but to look forward as well. It all depends on how the light strikes.
Behind us is what brings us to our present and ahead of us should be Gods light reflecting off of us. It is Gods light that reflects in front of me leading the way. How wondrous.
Starting with one of my reflections that is imprinted behind me, I can picture it perfectly. It feels like I can almost taste it...the weather, the time of day, Josh's face, his warmth. Its on the tip of my tongue, my nose too. It was a typical foggy San Francisco mid day. Josh and I sat gazing out into the east bay from the top of my school at the time. We were dreaming and talking, what we do best, and Josh mentioned sailing around the world. I said lets do it! At the time, I think Josh had intentions of surfing around the world and this was his motive. Leaping ahead, it was not long before the idea of an organization that involved blessing others came to be. We knew right then that it was something big and was not coming from ourselves.
While in school as a photography major, I was in the middle of writing a book about both sides of my families back rounds...one side is Catholic and the other Jewish. It was overwhelming to gather information about my grandparents and each of their experiences. They all had very intense upbringings. As I struggled to come up with a title for my book, me and Josh were in church one sunday and he looked over at me and whispered in my ear, Exposure Truth. He continued to explain to me the spelling and double meaning within it. Don't you love how church can do that to your soul? How you explode with inspiration almost every time. Yup, gotta love the Holy Spirit, a power that is not our own! The name, Exposure Truth was brilliant in my mind. My book was not only filled with words but also a collection of old and new photographs of my family history alongside photographs that represented my heart at the time. Exposure Truth stuck with us and we knew it was something that had more to it.
Marriage and Miss Joyful Journey Miller came next and not long after, Exposure Truth evolved into Exposure World, which you all know much about now. Amazing how things progress, huh? When a dream is created and carried through much doubt, and is still somehow progressing, you know it is not about you anymore and it completely lives in Gods hands. We have never been able to forget about this dream, we have only rested in it while wrestling with how it will come to be. Two babies later, God is moving and we are at His side. Although there is still so much mystery in how Exposure World is going to look, it is here, right now....moving and progressing. Doors are being opened. And the doors that close, we quickly move from.
The light has shifted and the reflection is now in front.
All we know for sure is that Gods light is to shine off of us and ahead of us. We pray we never lose sight of it. To keep within His reflection is our goal. In it we are learning to love Him more. Through simply loving Him, so much of what we wrestle with, will be turned to peace. God gives peace that is able to surpass all understanding. Its one among many of His biblical promises to us. We are learning to pray within His promises more and that has not only simplified our prayers but also revealed less detail in the "big picture"and any thoughts of controlling Exposure World have vanished. The truth is, we dont need to understand what Exposure World will look like in the future or how it will come to be. We just know that it is moving right now and that Gods hand is in it. We can not put a box around it. We have done this in the past and we were stagnate. We tried to tell God our plans...and in return, He showed us pieces to His. His Spirit moves in such beauty and mystery that people cant deny its God. This is what we strive for the most, the Holy Spirit to lead us. This is Gods plan and we are His vessels to make it happen. Where He moves, we are trying desperately to follow with hopes that people will see and experience God.
No box, no room for doubt or anxiety, no self-rightousness, no pride but rather, trust, faith, His righteousness and complete humility. We want to serve. Bottom line. We want to put all people above ourselves no matter how that may look. We desire our hearts to be parallel with Jesus'. We want our flesh to be put to death so we then have room for the Holy Spirit to take over our lives. We are exhausted from ignorantly quenching the Spirit. Where He tugs, we will do our best to follow. Our failures WILL NOT stop us from getting back on His track, they will only teach us on a deeper level that God is almighty and all knowing. These are things that are hard to wrap our minds around but we try anyways. Again, its a peace that surpasses all understanding that keeps us believing. We will never have God figured out or see His complete purpose....this only gets us in a place of trouble and complacency. We dont need to know the details of this great universe and how and why it functions....we just need to move and walk with God in all we do. We need to strive and seek for more of Him. Its when we are in constant conversation with Him that we truly start to see His heart and where we are to move. How we are to breathe. How we are to act.
We have learned that the fruit of the Spirit is never something we physically can receive. The more we try to muscle our way into receiving His fruit, the farther away we become. The more we surrender and accept the fact that we cant do it alone and that we need complete dependency on God, the more fruit we bear that is from Him. The branches that lead us to empty places are cut off. The branches that are good can become pruned (which suck sometimes) but lead us to great fruition and joy. This we believe. This is where our heart is. We try, We do...We pray, We hope....We give, We receive....We rejoice in His love for us. We want Gods fruit in us and we are doing our best to purify His temple...in us.
Amen. Trust.
-Jennifer
Behind us is what brings us to our present and ahead of us should be Gods light reflecting off of us. It is Gods light that reflects in front of me leading the way. How wondrous.
Starting with one of my reflections that is imprinted behind me, I can picture it perfectly. It feels like I can almost taste it...the weather, the time of day, Josh's face, his warmth. Its on the tip of my tongue, my nose too. It was a typical foggy San Francisco mid day. Josh and I sat gazing out into the east bay from the top of my school at the time. We were dreaming and talking, what we do best, and Josh mentioned sailing around the world. I said lets do it! At the time, I think Josh had intentions of surfing around the world and this was his motive. Leaping ahead, it was not long before the idea of an organization that involved blessing others came to be. We knew right then that it was something big and was not coming from ourselves.
While in school as a photography major, I was in the middle of writing a book about both sides of my families back rounds...one side is Catholic and the other Jewish. It was overwhelming to gather information about my grandparents and each of their experiences. They all had very intense upbringings. As I struggled to come up with a title for my book, me and Josh were in church one sunday and he looked over at me and whispered in my ear, Exposure Truth. He continued to explain to me the spelling and double meaning within it. Don't you love how church can do that to your soul? How you explode with inspiration almost every time. Yup, gotta love the Holy Spirit, a power that is not our own! The name, Exposure Truth was brilliant in my mind. My book was not only filled with words but also a collection of old and new photographs of my family history alongside photographs that represented my heart at the time. Exposure Truth stuck with us and we knew it was something that had more to it.
Marriage and Miss Joyful Journey Miller came next and not long after, Exposure Truth evolved into Exposure World, which you all know much about now. Amazing how things progress, huh? When a dream is created and carried through much doubt, and is still somehow progressing, you know it is not about you anymore and it completely lives in Gods hands. We have never been able to forget about this dream, we have only rested in it while wrestling with how it will come to be. Two babies later, God is moving and we are at His side. Although there is still so much mystery in how Exposure World is going to look, it is here, right now....moving and progressing. Doors are being opened. And the doors that close, we quickly move from.
The light has shifted and the reflection is now in front.
All we know for sure is that Gods light is to shine off of us and ahead of us. We pray we never lose sight of it. To keep within His reflection is our goal. In it we are learning to love Him more. Through simply loving Him, so much of what we wrestle with, will be turned to peace. God gives peace that is able to surpass all understanding. Its one among many of His biblical promises to us. We are learning to pray within His promises more and that has not only simplified our prayers but also revealed less detail in the "big picture"and any thoughts of controlling Exposure World have vanished. The truth is, we dont need to understand what Exposure World will look like in the future or how it will come to be. We just know that it is moving right now and that Gods hand is in it. We can not put a box around it. We have done this in the past and we were stagnate. We tried to tell God our plans...and in return, He showed us pieces to His. His Spirit moves in such beauty and mystery that people cant deny its God. This is what we strive for the most, the Holy Spirit to lead us. This is Gods plan and we are His vessels to make it happen. Where He moves, we are trying desperately to follow with hopes that people will see and experience God.
No box, no room for doubt or anxiety, no self-rightousness, no pride but rather, trust, faith, His righteousness and complete humility. We want to serve. Bottom line. We want to put all people above ourselves no matter how that may look. We desire our hearts to be parallel with Jesus'. We want our flesh to be put to death so we then have room for the Holy Spirit to take over our lives. We are exhausted from ignorantly quenching the Spirit. Where He tugs, we will do our best to follow. Our failures WILL NOT stop us from getting back on His track, they will only teach us on a deeper level that God is almighty and all knowing. These are things that are hard to wrap our minds around but we try anyways. Again, its a peace that surpasses all understanding that keeps us believing. We will never have God figured out or see His complete purpose....this only gets us in a place of trouble and complacency. We dont need to know the details of this great universe and how and why it functions....we just need to move and walk with God in all we do. We need to strive and seek for more of Him. Its when we are in constant conversation with Him that we truly start to see His heart and where we are to move. How we are to breathe. How we are to act.
We have learned that the fruit of the Spirit is never something we physically can receive. The more we try to muscle our way into receiving His fruit, the farther away we become. The more we surrender and accept the fact that we cant do it alone and that we need complete dependency on God, the more fruit we bear that is from Him. The branches that lead us to empty places are cut off. The branches that are good can become pruned (which suck sometimes) but lead us to great fruition and joy. This we believe. This is where our heart is. We try, We do...We pray, We hope....We give, We receive....We rejoice in His love for us. We want Gods fruit in us and we are doing our best to purify His temple...in us.
Amen. Trust.
-Jennifer
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