Lights...Camera...Action Season 4

Life is about Exposure!!!

In this episode of 'Vision in the Valley,' Quan discusses the profound impact of cameras in capturing moments that offer perspectives and memories we might not otherwise experience. The narrative delves into the significance of photos as validations of our experiences and analogizes exposure in photography to life's exposure to new experiences and personal growth. Quan also shares personal anecdotes about overcoming family disconnection, the role of faith in her journey, and the lessons of exposure and illumination provided by the Holy Spirit. The narrative emphasizes the importance of light and time in capturing life's true essence and encourages viewers to manifest their own 'pictures' of life with gratitude and openness.

Transcript

Welcome back to Vision in the Valley.  So the camera, as we know, it captures the moment we want to save, whether it's the birthday celebration or the farewell speech, or even the fender bender. Whether we want a certificate, a receipt. of the event,  it gives us an opportunity not only to freeze the moments, but to literally offer a lens or a point of view that we wouldn't see alone. 

When you're busy living and doing life, you see out, but you don't see through the lens that's on you. So you can later see things that you didn't even recognize about yourself. When you are looking at these, at these pictures that a camera would capture, right?  For example, when I'm caught on camera, especially off guard, right?

I am looking at someone and I'm kind of leaning into them and I'm leaning my head to the side. If you capture me, listening to a person while they're talking on that picture in that film. I also love that when you capture a person they're off guard, that is right. You catch them looking at the person and you can see the love in their eyes and the smile or adoration on their face.

When you, when you see this, it's like a, uh, an innocent, uh, organic statement and Instagram is full of orchestrated, manipulated photos that mimic that same essence because we see how important, how valuable it is to be captured or even to see ourselves that way. The bottom line is that the camera exposes us to ourselves, And to others. 

And we need those images  to almost validate the moment to, like I said, confirm that it happened. I had a blast on my birthday. I had a wonderful time on my trip. See these photos here is evidence of it. You see it here. You see me smiling here. You see the fun that's in this photo. It's like a stamp, uh, an evidence, a receipt. 

So I've been thinking about the word expose or exposure.  We use it so often. I know that I've been saying the same phrase for ever. I say life is about exposure because I'm saying that the more you are exposed to, whether it's the theater or how to sit or how to eat or to travel beyond the four blocks that you were raised, whatever it is, once you've been exposed to it, your life expands.

Another way we say it. Is that we say that the Lord is exposing us to our future, our possibility.  So let's just talk about the word as it relates to film into cameras.  Exposure is defined as the quantity of light that is allowed through the camera's lens and onto the photo film controlled by the intensity of light and length of time. 

Now that's strong just by itself. That's strong. Adobe says that exposure is the amount of light that reaches your camera's sensor, creating visual data over a period of time.  So it's a balancing act, but both definitions point to light and time as the key agents or components. Thank you.  So for me, that's huge.

It's full and profound  to see the picture, the complete full picture. We need both light  and time.  You with me so far? So I like to think of the Holy Spirit as the light. This illumination may happen for me, like in a dream, the onset of this podcast, I was talking to you all about how I dreamt of being on the stage, um, a stage much like the church.

In fact, it was  prior to even seeing the new temple that I was having these dreams or later having dreams about being behind the stage, behind the scenes.  As you know, now I am serving on the board, uh, and I'm trying to serve as, in as many ways as possible, because I know that that exposure, that exposure that he gave me in my dream was giving me a glimpse of my, of my picture. 

How about the drain when I'm looking out at the city I told you guys about that said like I'm looking out at like a 3d map it's called vantage point and the scene that I was painting is actually the same landscape that I'm overlooking at the new office space. Those things by themselves absolutely blow my mind  but what I want to lean into  Is a comment that a new friend made.

So I told you guys a couple of episodes ago about my son taking me out on a date and how I met these two new friends and how we mingled and  ended up  basically sharing like what seemed like a life story and so many minutes, but it was just a beautiful, organic meet and greet. Right. Sharing of, of many things were happening at that moment. 

And so this one particular friend shared that the Lord was using me to expose her to the relationship that she had longed for.  And it's, it stopped me in my tracks. It stopped me in my tracks because I knew I was getting ready to be blessed. And she was telling me about her blessing in my testimony, in my brag moment about my son, it was also going to bless me.

So she said that the Lord, wouldn't expose her to the relationship that I was bragging on about my son taking me and how, how good of a boy he's always been a good boy. And he's turning into this awesome man, um, that he didn't expose her to this. I could have ran into other people, but specifically her.

He didn't expose her to this, this picture of my life with my son, if he did not plan for her to be able to enjoy that same kind of life.  She said the Lord wouldn't have exposed her to this relationship and not allow her to receive and experience it in her own life.  We didn't speak much more about it, but  She also blessed me as I mentioned earlier, because I received it completely. 

See the part that she didn't know is that  for a time we were broken. After I left my ex husband, my entire family felt a bit displaced.  Our regular strong everyday bond was now challenged, right? Um, our secure routines were disrupted and I'll be honest with you. It was the worst time of my life. It made me feel less than a mother that my, my kids had grown to know and depend on. 

Life happened and we were disconnected and we were desperately missing each other and I prayed  many a days to have that family connection back. There were some days that  I just, I longed for that reconnect  so desperately that there were, there were days where it was a struggle  to get out of the bed, to just physically get out of the bed.

I don't. 

I don't think I've ever experienced anything.  Um, so challenging before in my entire life.  And I've been through  a lot.  So. The parts that are important to mention here is that I'm the classroom mom. I'm the soccer mom. I'm the football and a cheerleader mom. I'm the class plays and a recital mom. I'm the sleepover mom.

I'm the Disney on ice and a ballet mom. I'm the zoo mom.  So how can this now be my life that I'm disconnected from my kids in this way? It just doesn't mat. Exposure.  in time.  Our God illuminated  our steps back together  over time. His perfect timing and his perfect light. The image she saw  was a result of God's light and perfect timing. 

And the snapshot proves that it's real. See, this thing happened.  He can do all things. And my testimony was just really not my typical testimony. It wasn't even, I didn't even do the thing that I normally do. Now, today I'm doing that part. I'm testifying. I'm telling you that I had this incredibly hard time, hard passage and um,  I'm praying for anyone who is going through that kind of disconnect that they will see that the bigger picture is, is being revealed, is being, uh, will be exposed to you because I, I, I would not have made it through had I not felt that we would eventually get back to this place.

But when I was bragging on my  So my son taking me out, it was just pure joy. So it wasn't my typical testimony like you hear today. It was just the typical, I think my kids are awesome. I think my kids are great. But that, that was still a testimony, right? Because in that joy is what she got to see a snapshot of my, my picture to expose her to her life. 

The image you saw was a result of God's. Perfect timing. Like I said, because all things are possible.  He doesn't expose us to something to make us jealous.  He exposes those things so that we can be aware. He's,  he's showing us what we can look forward to that our pictures are too developing. He's no respective person that he would do it for me.

And then not for you or for her and not for me.  the funny thing is that you never realize who's looking at your picture. So you have to walk  with a sense of lights, camera action. And I want to remind someone today that even your joy is a testimony because it's the picture. It's that, that, that photo, that proof of I'm having a great time, that this is great.

So be ready for that. Another word or a synonym for expose. I was just very curious because the Lord had given me this and it just, the way it unfolded, it, it  blew my mind like, like always, right? So I started to look at, um, some other words for expose and reveal, uncover, bear, show, display, exhibit. Disclose, manifest, unveil. 

Those are the words that came up as synonyms and I'm like, wow. And then I thought,  uh, I looked at another definition, exhibit because exhibit popped out to me when I'm thinking about photos, pictures, right? So ex exhibition or exhibit. So exhibit, what does that mean is publicly displaying a work of art  Or items of interest in art gallery or museum. 

Another definition for it is to deliberately display a quality or type of behavior. So I find  Vision in the Valley as an exhibit with the works of art and the pictures of my life being displayed. For the world to see, not just Chicago, not just Illinois, but for the world to see. So, hello world. I'm thanking the Lord that my pics are being viewed in this exhibit. 

I'm thankful to expose, reveal, uncover, bare, show, display, exhibit, disclose God's great works in my life.  So you need to go ahead and manifest what your picture is going to look like. And in this exposure, while he's exposing me to things, like I mentioned just an episode before with Pastor Hannah talking about the expansion of territory, being exposed to some things.

The new number is 59 cities across four countries. And I just want to say hello to Kankakee. Kankakee is my hometown in so many ways. It's the one that I've just talked to you about. Kankakee is listening.  on a regular basis. It's also where my sister happens to live.  But I want to also say what's up to Virginia, New York, Georgia, Washington, Cali, Texas, Missouri, New Jersey, Indiana, Denver, and then the UK and Canada.

are blowing my mind with their regular listening habits. I am so thankful for exposure. I'm so thankful to be on exhibit and I pray that the Lord will get the glory out of my life as you view this gallery. So manifest your next picture. And I can't wait to talk to.