Life as a Suzal

Four years ago, at the Bible Study I was attending, a book was given out to thirty something college students from an anonymous donor. The point was made that this book was so impacting in the life of this anonymous person that they wanted it to be accessible to our group. The challenge was made to take a book only if you truly planned on reading it. I took it eagerly and started reading right away. I recognized the book as a Christian classic, one every Christian should read. You’re probably familiar with it. The book is “Knowing God.” by J.I. Packer.

Unfortunately, at that time I only made it a quarter of the way through the book before it somehow ended up back on my shelf, unfinished. So last week a friend and I decided to go through the book together. Needless to say, I am very excited! I just finished chapter two this morning, and thought I would share some impacting statements.

Packer makes a point that there is a difference between knowing God and knowing about God.

“One can know a great deal about God without much knowledge of Him. We read books about theological exposition and apologetics. We dip around in Christian history, and study the Christian creed. We learn to find our way around in the Scriptures… Our friends tell us how much they value our contribution… All very fine- yet interest in theology, and knowledge about God, and the capacity to think clearly and talk well on Christian themes, is not at all the same thing as knowing him.“*

“One can know a great deal about godliness without much knowledge of God…In this analytical and technological age there is no shortage of books on church booktables, or sermons from the pulpits, on how to pray, how to witness, how to read our Bibles…The questions is not whether we are good at theology…The question is, can we say, simply, honestly, not because we feel that as evangelicals we ought to, but because it is a plain matter of fact, that we have known God, and that because we have known God the unpleasantness we have had, or the pleasantness we have not had, through being Christians does not matter to us?

If we really knew God, this is what we would be saying, and if we are not saying it, that is a sign that we need to face ourselves more sharply with the difference between knowing God and merely knowing about him.”*

How convicted I am by reading that… and how I long to say, as a plain matter of fact, that I have known God…

(*Excerpt from Pages 26 & 27, italics mine)

I haven’t been shooting much since returning home from Resolved, which makes me sad because I don’t have anything too colorful to post on my blog. But one thing I do all the time is design wedding albums. I LOVE it. I feel like it’s a whole other side of the creative art of photography - narrowing down pictures from the story of a person’s day to beautifully compile their wedding story.

Today I got to do that for my deeeeear sister in law, Jules!! The especially-specially-special thing is that Lukas and I started dating about five months after Julia’s wedding, so I didn’t go. Now I love her like a sister (wait, she is my sister!!), so going through her wedding day and designing her album was almost like I was there too… well and at least now every time she looks through her album she’ll know my love and care went into making it ; ) Ben & Jules, you guys are too cute; it was hard to choose everything!

Here’s a little snippit!

Here are 15 Resolved Quotables that stood out to me from this year’s conference from our speakers, Rick Holland, C.J. Mahaney, Al Mohler, Steve Lawson, and John MacArthur. Can anyone get all 15 right? Leave a comment and see!

1. “Jesus is not your therapist, Jesus is not your coach, and Jesus is not your guru. Your self help manager. He is the King of Kings and Lord of Lords…Jesus is not your homeboy.”

2. “You put your weak life into His strong hands, and He will uphold you”

3. “Too many of us want the public without the dedication of the private”

4. “The faith that fizzles before the finish had a flaw from the first”

5. “…You can get it that wrong, and you’ll end up in hell. You can get it almost right, and still end up in hell.”

6. “These men all have letters after their name. Mine come before.”

7. “We used to beat up guys like that”

8. “True Christians are distinguished from unbelievers, true Christians are distinguished from nominal Christians by their obedience to Christ.”

9. “I fear that many Christians have a tame and domesticated understanding of what it means for Jesus to be King.”

10. “What we want is an experience so that we will not have to keep ourselves in the love of God.”

11. “…On the other hand I’m fighting with everything I’ve got for the protection of the the truth in the life of the church in the world.”

12. “I pray that we are never unamazed at how MUCH the LORD has done for us!”

13. “Gazing at Christ’s beauties, his glories, his excellencies, elevates the soul to higher vantage points so that you can see and worship Him more clearly.”

14. “It’s really important to get Christ right. Who is he?”

15. “If you don’t experience joy, find something to repent of.”

I just have to laugh at this.  One of my friends told me she even lost her shoe in all the rumble!

Enjoy…!

Lurking behind the seemingly peaceful doors, thousands of people lie in wait…

Ok guys! Ready for this?! You know what to do!

Mike and Mark open Pandora’s box…

And the beast emerges!

They’re free! But little do they know…

…that they will have to stop again. And these guys in green mean business.

Yes, yes, yes, everyone has to stop.

Now listen to Mark.  Ok, we’re going to do this walking.

Listen everyone! Say it with me, waaaallllkiiinnnnnng.

No, no, you can’t go off to the right. Stay straight.

The fierce guys in green keep it all in control.

Walking, waaaalllkinnnng…

Then a gust of air blows with a mad rush to get seats! Bibles are thrown, people jump on chairs and fall to the floor, shoes are lost! People lay across seats desperately clinging to their hope of sitting near the front…

And that’s what it’s like to get seats at Resolved. Or you could just come a little late and get stadium seats in the back. Kudos to Mark, Mike, and the fierce guys in green who kept everything under control at yet another year of Resolved.

The Resolved Conference 2010 is finally here! For those of you who don’t have any idea what I am talking about, check out www.resolved.org. Lukas and I have been here since Thursday morning, and Palm Springs is nice and toasty just like last year. Lukas has been backstage alot, while I have been mostly in the bookstore helping fold and sell shirts. I just have to brag on my husband a minute, because alot of people don’t realize that he completely designed all the graphics for the background on stage. Nothing was taken off a google search, or pictures off the web; he shot and designed it all AND is covering all the event footage again this year. Isn’t he amazing! While he is doing that, I have been having fun finding random people to interview for our blog. This year we are doing Faces @ Resolved, to get fun snapshots of who is at the conference. It’s soooo cool how people are here from all over!

Today we had some challenging-inspiring-convicting-encouraging-thought-provoking-encouraging sermons from Al Mohler, Steve Lawson and C.J. Mahaney. It was my first time hearing Dr. Mohler preach, and boy was it a treat. Not that I’m biased because he’s from Kentucky or anything. But what can I say? All of the speakers at this conference are amazing and God has given them incredible gifts of preaching. My pastor, John MacArthur will be joining us tomorrow, and I can’t wait to hear what else God has in store for us.

I have to say that I am just blown away every year by this conference at the passionate focus of bringing glory to God by having a true, biblical understanding of who He is. More to come! (Oh, and check out the interviews and pictures of Resolved on Lukas’ site!)

A few weekends ago, we made the long treck up to Oregon to go to our good friends, Jeremy and Jessica’s wedding! It was my first time in OR which was very fun and exciting. But along with the feelings of excitement and happiness, a deep sinking feeling dwelt in the pit of my stomach. You see, this was to be my first wedding shooting by myself.

Lukas was a groomsman in the outfield, so I was up to bat. After praying and praying my nerves would calm down, and I would be able to think quickly to get my settings, the big day came. God was so kind and everything went great! I didn’t trip over the bride and groom, I didn’t sneeze loudly in the middle of the vows, and I didn’t drop my camera up on stage.  Whew!

It was one of the funnest weddings ever!!!

Be sure to check out Lukas’ site for more pictures, and the Slideshow!

I can’t believe that almost one month ago Lukas and I were up shooting Michael and Ashley’s wedding in Carmel. I have been out of town alot since then, but had to post a few of my favorites! Ashley is one of the most laid-back and fun brides I have hung out with. As I rode with her in the back of a pickup truck on the way to the ceremony at the beach, we laughed and chatted as if we were old friends.

The one thing I thought was absolutely adorable about Ashley and Michael is that they have been dating since they were teens, childhood sweethearts! Congratulations Mr. & Mrs. Peric!!!

Last Saturday I had the privilege of shooting Jeremy and Jessica’s wedding. I have shot over 15 weddings with Lukas, and helped out with even more, but last weekend was my first wedding shooting by myself! “Why?” You may ask… because instead of behind the lens shooting the wedding, my handsome husband was in it! Here is a little preview and I can’t wait to finish the rest!

Driving home from San Francisco from Matthew and Jessica’s wedding, I looked at Lukas and said, “that wedding was absolutely full of love. Love, love, love.” From the deep love of the couple for eachother, to the love shown in Jessica’s wedding details honoring her friends, to the teary eyed toasts from brothers and sisters and the joy of each family incorporating a new member in, their wedding was beautiful in all senses of the word. Congratulations!!

Last week I got to go out with one of Lukas’ old friends from Master’s College and shoot some headshots. As I talked with Randy about the play he was in, an agent he was submitting to, and future auditions he was going on, I had the excited feeling that comes with the energy and fastpace of Showbiz. Randy can definitely pull off multiple looks, and I had a ton of fun capturing them!