{"id":4888,"date":"2012-03-07T14:38:27","date_gmt":"2012-03-07T14:38:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/billfortney.com\/?p=4888"},"modified":"2012-03-07T15:10:07","modified_gmt":"2012-03-07T15:10:07","slug":"are-you-your-favorite-photographer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/billfortney.com\/?p=4888","title":{"rendered":"Are you, your favorite photographer?"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Image by Miles Smith<\/h3>\n

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Romans 12:1-5<\/span><\/h3>\n

New Living Translation (NLT)<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\u00a01<\/sup> And so, dear brothers and sisters, I plead with you to give your bodies to God because of all he has done for you. Let them be a living and holy sacrifice\u2014the kind he will find acceptable. This is truly the way to worship him. 2<\/sup>Don\u2019t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God\u2019s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect.<\/span><\/div>\n
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\u00a03<\/sup> Because of the privilege and authority God has given me, I give each of you this warning: Don\u2019t think you are better than you really are. Be honest in your evaluation of yourselves, measuring yourselves by the faith God has given us. 4<\/sup> Just as our bodies have many parts and each part has a special function, 5<\/sup> so it is with Christ\u2019s body. We are many parts of one body, and we all belong to each other.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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This morning devotional from InTouch had a favorite Scripture reference for me, Romans 12:1-5 above. \u00a0It contasins one of the most valuable warnings in all scripture;\u00a0 \u00a0<\/span>Don\u2019t think you are better than you really are. Be honest in your evaluation of yourselves. \u00a0<\/span>As a photographer it’s tempting to see the result of all your hard work as more glorious than it may be. \u00a0As a way to combat that, I’ve made it a practice to pick photographers who’s work I greatly admire and look at their work as often as possible, as a reminder of how much I have to learn! \u00a0I love the work of Tony Sweet, and a friend, Myles Smith (image at the top) is very much in the mold of \u00a0Tony. \u00a0I love my teaching partner, Jim Begley’s work, and I have always loved Christopher Burkett’s incredible landscapes. \u00a0I have many other favorites but the important thing is my work is “not” my favorite. \u00a0How do you develop a healthy attitude about your own efforts? \u00a0 The best key is in the scripture above, “be honest in your evaluation of yourselves….” \u00a0We all know how our work stacks up, because we have spent a lifetime comparing ourselves to others, but that is missing the point. \u00a0There is only one worthy of comparing yourself to, Jesus. \u00a0All other comparisons are meaningless. \u00a0Let’s say there are 100 top photographers in the world. \u00a0I’m not sure who made the list, and how accurate it is, but for the sake of this discussion, lets say there is such a list. \u00a0What if you are number 10 on that list. \u00a0What difference does it make? \u00a0Maybe if you are seeking endorsements or trying to make money from your craft, it has an effect, but eternally, what does it matter? \u00a0Sadly it doesn’t matter!<\/p>\n

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Working hard and becoming good at anything is laudable, but it only sets us apart , in that, \u00a0we made an effort and succeeded at a goal. \u00a0 It doesn’t increase our worth. \u00a0Our worth is determined by something far greater. \u00a0Jesus died for you, that is the only validation you will ever need. \u00a0Since He died for all of us, every single one of us, that makes us equally validated. \u00a0Get the point, no need for rankings. \u00a0Sure someone will win the World Series, the NCAA Tournament, the Super Bowl, Best Actor, Best Picture, but all of those are “Man Made” \u00a0goals, not “God Made Goals!”<\/p>\n

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God has only one goal, for you to accept Him and serve Him. \u00a0He gave His only Son so that you might be a member of His family.<\/p>\n

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Be blessed,<\/p>\n

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the pilgrim<\/p>\n

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Image by Miles Smith   Romans 12:1-5 New Living Translation (NLT) \u00a01 And so, dear brothers and sisters, I plead with you to give your bodies to God because of all he has done for you. Let them be a living and holy sacrifice\u2014the kind he will find acceptable. This is truly the way to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4888","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-chronicles"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/billfortney.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4888","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/billfortney.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/billfortney.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/billfortney.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/billfortney.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4888"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/billfortney.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4888\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4891,"href":"https:\/\/billfortney.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4888\/revisions\/4891"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/billfortney.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4888"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/billfortney.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4888"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/billfortney.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4888"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}