Lately I have been praying and seeking God more than usual due to concerns that I haven’t been hearing his voice for what seems like too long. After praying about it, I still hadn’t heard from him. I then got a dream which I knew was from God. It went something like this:
I was travelling in a country which I think was Australia. I am a passionate traveler and photographer, so God drew on symbolism that is meaningful to me. I seem to be in a beautiful area where there is an escarpment or perhaps a mountainous area rising up steeply. I am ready to take a photo of what appears to be a great view, but I hesitate and take too much time to line up the shot. Then the moment is lost, as weather conditions hide the mountain from view.
In another scene I see a beautiful vista while driving but I continue to drive and upon regretting not stopping to take a shot, I drive back to the scene. However it is too late, I have lost the moment again as conditions change quickly and the shot I get is not anything like what I could have if I stopped earlier.
I have been an avid photographer for many years and I have had my fair share of lost moments, but I have taken some great shots too. As a photographer, you expect to win some and lose some. There are times however when I could have taken the perfect shot, but for one reason or another I didn’t. Maybe I didn’t have a camera with me. Perhaps I just hesitated to stop when I should of. Whatever the reason, I know I have missed some amazing vistas forever.
Back to the dream. I was holding this futuristic looking camera with an unusual electronic display on it. Yet the weird part was the camera used old fashioned rolls of film which I use to use before digital cameras became the norm. Upon inspection of the camera, I realised I was on my last roll of film. But the camera also had all past rolls of film inside too. These contained images from other times of my life. Realising that I was on my last roll, I thought that I had better maximize the photo opportunities because these would be my last chance for great photos.
For some reason, I had another problem. Interspersed between the images in the camera were blank frames. I could see this as the camera’s display allowed me to see the photos contained inside. However, I wasn’t too worried about them at first because I thought that I could reuse these blank frames later. Unfortunately when I took the last shot on the last film, the roll started to rewind and to my frustration I realised that I wasn’t going to be able to recoup these blank frames. I had lost my chance to use them forever.
Once the roll rewound the film, the camera then started rewinding all the other rolls of film too. It was as if the camera was finished. It went into this rewind mode for a while and I started to realise that I couldn’t use the camera ever again. The photos I had taken in my life were now complete. I then felt great regret. I had wasted the last roll of film. I had a number of great photographic opportunities in this beautiful place I visited, and didn’t take full advantage of the photographic opportunities. I had definitely many photos on the other rolls, but the last roll had quite a few blanks and shots that could have been a lot better had I used them at the time.
What did the dream mean. What was God communicating to me. It seemed obvious to me that the camera was me. It was me that had been given many great opportunities in life. It was also me that wasted many of them. It was me who travelled around the world. But it was also me that did take some great shots too. Overall however, I was disappointing in myself. I had wasted much of my life and now the memories/photos were being rewound and ready for my creator to review. It was the end of my life and boy did I have some regrets.
Fortunately, it was a dream and I still have time in my life to rectify things. The dream really drove home to me how important it is to take advantage of the time and place you are in. God gives us opportunities every day and we shouldn’t squander them. Our lives here are limited, but we act like we have all the time in the world.
So for me right now, there seems to be a renewed passion to do the works of God. To take the opportunities he gives me and to also travel or do some new things so that more of these opportunities open up. By that I mean, do not get stuck in a rut where everyday is the same. Live with a sense of adventure. Life is a great adventure and we should enjoy the life God has given us and look for the opportunities he gives us. As each moment passes, they are gone forever. Remembered perhaps, but gone in the sense that you cannot change it. For each day where you did nothing of significance, it is like the blank frames in your roll of film. Once the roll comes to an end, they are forever wasted and there is no reward for them. The only thing we have of value are the good shots we take with the film we are given. Some people get more rolls of film than others and we don’t generally know when we will take our last shot or how many frames we have left.
Be wise with the time you have. Be zealous. Take opportunities that are presented to you. What do you have to lose.
