Chapmanesque—Set Your (Distracted) Minds Above
I very rarely get a picture of myself. Photo creds goes to the extremely talented Trinity Burge-Walker.
Remember back in school when you learned about juxtaposition? You probably don’t, even though you’ve probably just impressed yourself with the fact that you know what juxtaposition is.
It’s when two things that don’t fit together are combined together to create a unit that also exerts an aura of contrast.
Also, I intentionally used the word aura in that previous sentence to entice the youth of today and impress upon them that I understand the nuance of that word (and that sentence just negated any street cred I happened to earn. Dang).
For me, there’s nothing greater than finding beautiful juxtapositions. When two things seem to be such polar opposites and yet they end up together in a harmonious partnership, I just can’t help but catch the vapors.
I love making things I love that don’t seem to fit converge, especially when one could assume those two things would never cross paths in an organic sense. It’s the old adage that opposites attract.
Not so much in an “up-and-down” sense or a “hot-and-cold” sense, but more along the lines of light-and-feathery mixed with welded steel.
It’s the cheerleader who’s in love with the punk rocker or the construction worker who goes home to his miniature yorkie.
Notes on a Staff
I sing in the choir at church. Singing is one of those natural aptitudes I was blessed with from a young age, and it’s something I enjoy doing. I like to think of the joy I find in it similar to the joy one naturally blessed with impressive height and strength finds in being taller and stronger than myself.
There’s a natural groove that people tend to find in the things they’re naturally good at. It’s the kid who’s just naturally fast and the freedom they feel when they break into a sprint or the power an artist wields when they bring forth a world or a face or a being from an empty canvas.
Everyone has that one thing they’re really good at, and they often times end up being the one least impressed with their natural abilities. That is until they encounter an experience where they get to feel their hypothetical wings open up and they take flight in that thing and soar higher and faster than anyone else could dream.
I’m “musical” enough to relish in the wind beneath my wings (catch that there?). I can lean into the melody and harmonies enough to contribute to the enjoyment of the moment. But I can’t read music.
I can play the piano (enough) by ear and have played the guitar for close to 25 years, but I can’t read music.
I can follow the notes as a tenor, knowing when I go up or when I’m two full steps above the melody, but I can’t read read music.
Instrumentalists read sheet music measure at a time (or so I’m told), but I’m a note-by-note person. I can read guitar tabs pretty well and can follow the Nashville Number System fairly well knowing mostly where my 4s and 5s fall in comparisons to my 1s (G=1, C=4, D=5), but I can’t actually read music.
Truths at Choir Practice
This past Wednesday evening, I was sitting in choir rehearsal at my church. It was the end of a long day, and to be honest, I was wishing I was at home in the quiet, letting the boot-heals of the taxing day lull me away to my bedtime.
I’ve just reached the end of a gnarly sinus infection, and my vocals weren’t too keen in finding (or hitting) those tenor notes. But, alas, I showed up and ventured my way through the rehearsal.
In typical fashion, I found myself forgetting about how tired I was, and, instead, relished in the fact that I could find (and hit) the notes despite the week’s worth of hacking and sneezing and coughing I’d experienced.
During our rehearsal, our Worship Pastor (or what we all grew up calling a Music Minister) Ryan Ethridge led us through a brief dive into Colossians 3:2.
Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth.
Autofocus is the Way to Go
You may be wondering how we went from juxtaposition to church choir to the Bible. I’m glad you’ve stuck with me. Let’s stretch this even further.
I just bought a new camera. One of the features of my new camera is facial recognition. With this new technology, I can “half cock” my shutter button and focus on a subject in similar fashion as I could with my previous camera.
The only difference is, this new camera will latch on to the subject’s face and auto-focus on the subject no matter where he or she goes within the frame.
If I’m taking a picture of a cowboy on a horse and the horse decides he wants to mosey on towards me, the new technology will keep his face in focus.
If I have an ice dancer who I have in frame and she drifts beyond her original position, the autofocus will adjust, keeping her face in focus, allowing me to get a fantastic picture.
To be honest, the technology can even focus more on the eye instead of simply the face, allowing for a ridiculously crisp photo.
Set Your Mind
When Ryan was talking about setting our mind on things that are above, my mind couldn’t help but think in terms of my camera.
I’ve mentioned before that I find my values in Jesus Christ, and I know that not everyone does, but just bear with me.
How many times does our focus on what is important get hindered not based on the foundational truths of that thing but from our positioning relative to that truth?
Our ship gets knocked off course by a stray wind or a rouge wave only to have our focus interrupted and our point of reference thrown off.
The urgent problems creep up on us while our focus on those valuable truths is slowly stifled and often times suffocated.
No matter where my feet are or my position is when I’m taking a picture, as long as I keep that subject in frame, the facial recognition auto-focusing technology keeps my subject right where it needs to be. Everything else in the frame plays its role with the subject being the main character.
I wish there was a way to make our minds, our bodies and our spirits auto-focus on those foundational truths that make up our core values.
Unfortunately, that feature hasn’t made its way to our “systems upgrade.”
Instead, little reminders in our everyday lives that aren’t necessarily meant to serve as reminders can easily become so.
Those two things that don’t fit together can create a beautiful reminder to focus on the important truths that allow us to find completion and purpose, especially when we have too many mental tabs open at once and could use a system reboot.
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