“If only I could freeze frame this moment!” I thought. The ocean was perfect. The gentle crash of ocean waves on a shoreline of smooth sand set against a cloudless sky. All was right. The worries of the week were erased, swept out to sea like the sandcastle at high tide. Faith seemed easy and belief a no-brainer as I looked out at the beauty surrounding me.
Freeze-frame (noun) a single frame of a film repeated to give an effect like a still photograph
I wanted my life to be a still photograph of that image. How seemingly easy it would be to have faith! To watch the tides from high to low; to walk the beach with a comfortable companion.
Back in the city the heat was greater and chaos seemed to accompany arrival. Kids so content just minutes before were suddenly arguing and the house seemed noisy and irritating. Where was the freeze-frame? How had the image changed in one car ride?
Freeze-frame faith. Being able to capture those moments, not to live in them, but to remember when life takes on different challenges. During the times we have had life-changing events it has helped me to write all the steps and the many miracles that went in to those events, a verbal freeze-frame to record moments. A freeze-frame to look back on as life takes a different direction and feels oh-so-hard.
And today I need this freeze-frame. I need the reminders of an ordered world so I can face one with chaos. I need the reminders of smooth sand and crashing waves so I can face city streets and crowded sidewalks. I need a freeze-frame faith.
Marilyn R. Gardner 
But if we live in yesterday’s freeze frame do we not also risk losing the holy Here and Now? What if today’s Here and Now could have been tomorrow’s freeze frame but we missed it because we were still in yesterday’s? Wouldn’t it do our souls a world of good to pull ourselves back to the present? To claim, by faith, that this moment is a freeze frame moment. This moment has the possibility to contain the Divine. This moment can be captured and claimed. This moment, this Here and Now, this burning bush calls us to take off our shoes. This now is holiness.
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Robynn, as you I like to live in the “here and now”. I have a poem on my wall, it reads as follows:
I was regretting the past and fearing the future. Suddenly my Lord was speaking: “My name is I am.”
He paused. I waited. He continued, “When you live in the past with its mistakes and regrets, it is hard. I am not there. My name is not I WAS.
When you live in the future, with its problems and fears, it is hard. I am not there. My name is not I WILL BE.
When you Live in this moment it is not hard. I am here. My name is I AM.”
I belief the same holds true for happy and tranquil moments. God intended them to rejuvenate our souls for this moment (freeze-frame) in time. It is important that we embrass the “here” since this is where we meet God. As we know God is present in our difficult and tranquil moments.
Wishing all a blessed week,
Petra
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Yes – I don’t think it’s a wanting to live in the moments – It’s like the Israelites “freeze-Framed” moments where God said “Remember, Remember Remember” He wanted those freeze-framed so that they would not lose heart in the desert but move forward step by step. You’re right – if we want to live purely in them, we lose sight of those glorious holy moments of the here and now. But sometimes we’ve lost sight of them anyway and need to be reminded. Thanks to both of you for a good thoughts/ good discussion.
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Love the concept :)
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Thanks Trinity. It’s a bit like watching a movie and wanting to rewind a really good part – it’s not that you don’t want to go forward but you want to remember that part that made you laugh so hard your stomach ached, or cry tears into your couch pillow.
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I feel that way about three nights and four days of last week. So glad I have the photos and the memories, but how do we bring the ‘feeling’ of being there with us when we are not…
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I don’t know Stacey – but I think the photos and memories serve a wonderful purpose – I don’t believe it’s trying to live in the past rather than be reminded of strength and grace to go on in the moment. I am so glad that last week worked for you :)
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