it’s been a year since this weekend.
for 52 weeks, this film has been buried on a hard drive. once in a while, it taps me on my shoulder, reminding me of what true life really is.
may this be a tap on the shoulder, a still small voice, to the fifteen friends in this film of how full life is when we love each other, love God, and know that God loves us.
“And he will think, that is why God made the world. Just that.”
Captured on July 24th, 2024
Developed on October 14th, 2024
Edited on October 22nd, 2024
And left on a hard drive for far, far too long.
a full life – full of people who love life, and love each other.
summer days I’ll remember for the rest of my life, seen through a camera that’s been around longer than a lifetime
The awesome, painful, perfect thing about life is that it does not play out according to our plans.
Earlier this year, life went a bit off-script. So, I picked up my camera and zoomed in on the people I love. Not to capture moments that make me feel alive, but to seek them.
These are those moments, and these are those people. The ones who walked with me through the woods. The ones who made parking lots feel like rollercoasters. The ones who smiled and laughed with me, even when I didn’t land on my feet.
Two years ago, I took a photo awfully similar to this on my last night in Cincinnati.
I stood with my friends and smiled in front of a freshly packed yellow Jeep, twelve hours before I’d drive it across the country to a new life. That night, we laughed, played capture the flag, and stayed up late in my friend’s backyard… holding on to the final moments we’d share for a long time. My overwhelming thankfulness for the ones I spent my life with in Ohio was married to a wonder if I’d ever be that close with people again.
Exactly two years later, my best friends in the world - living in Los Angeles, CA - popped out of cars and bushes to surprise me for my birthday. We laughed, played capture the flag, and stayed up late in a parking lot… holding on to one of many moments we’ll share in this beautiful life we live together. My in-the-sky thankfulness for these friends I get to spend my life with is married to the grace of the God who saw me, with nothing to offer, and surrounded me with people I’m undeserving of. These friends speak into me an identity I never felt worthy of, and embark with me into a life most simply defined as full.
I think life is a lot like a game of capture the flag. We’re all trying to grab something, and it feels good to take hold of it and run. But we can’t play the game alone, and whether we make it back home with a bandana in our hand or not - the real victory is to run around and play with our friends. To play the game is to win.
I’m thankful for these teammates in this beautiful, hard, exciting game we call life. I’m thankful for a God who is less like a coach and more like a team captain… a God who’d rather jump in the game with us than watch us from afar and tell us what to do. There are no sidelines in this world, if you’re on the team, you’re in the game. Thank you to the ones who dream, see, and feel what it means to play together.
