white balance.
February 22, 2011
So, every night when I go to bed I turn my lamp on. I can’t decide if I like having my lamp on or if I just really like having my buzzing, hissing, migraine-inducing florescent light off. Either way, the lamp goes on. The bulb for this particular lamp produces a very yellow tinted light. In fact, I don’t know if I can really say that it’s tinted; it’s drenched in yellow. This doesn’t bother me after a while, because my brain kind of sets its white balance and starts seeing the yellow light as just plain, white light. I might be about to really stretch things here, but this is a realization that I came to tonight.
After I turned off my lamp, I plugged in my phone to charge (seems backwards, I know, but it’s routine). When my phone gets plugged in, it shows a white screen. I noticed tonight for the first time that the white light that was being produced looked very, very blue. Being (kind of) a photographer, I instantly knew why: my eyes had been seeing the yellow light for so long. It’s like setting the white balance on your camera for shooting in a gymnasium and then not changing it once you go to shoot outside on a snowy day. The snow is going to look like it’s been painted blue.
Because I had been drenching my eyes in this yellow light from my lamp, the white light from my phone was seen differently. Here’s my maybe stretched thought: what we choose to drench ourselves in will have a significant impact on the way we see everything else.
I recently decided to take a break from the Bible reading plan that I was working through. It was just your standard “read through the Bible in a year” deal, and I was pretty close to being through it too (I’ll finish someday). I just felt the passion and need to focus specifically on the Gospels, to really soak up the words of Jesus. I’m planning on going through the four sacred books at least a couple times over the next month. I didn’t expect (although I really should have) for there to be such an impact so quickly, but I’m only almost through Matthew on my first read and I’m noticing a significant difference in my life. Maybe not in my actions quite yet, but in the way that I view things. I’m choosing to drench myself in the teachings of Jesus and that is allowing me view the world differently than I did just a week ago. It’s beautiful.
I apologize for the seemingly forced analogy, but I am the son of a pastor. It’s just something that I noticed and felt led to share with anybody who may read. What you choose to to drench yourself in, what you choose to watch, listen to, read, etc., will have a significant impact on the way you see everything else. And you may not be spending your time with things that are necesarily “bad” or “evil,” but if it’s not good, if it’s not allowing you to have a positive impact in the lives of others and love on everyone around you, what’s the point?
