Ah, the perfect subject for a blog post the day after Thanksgiving! You can’t be happy and thankful and grateful and kind and sweet all the time, can you? I mean, eventually, it’s going to wear off, right?

Well, yes, if you never develop your negatives!

I don’t know too much about film photography. I’ve never been in a functioning dark room. But like everyone else I know who knows at least a little bit about it, I think the development process is quite fascinating!

We’ve all seen real negatives. (Err, maybe you haven’t! Here’s a picture of some old negatives from years ago….)

They look kinda funny, don’t they. You can see why they’re called “negatives”.

It’s dark where things should be light. And it’s light where things should to be dark. They’re inverted. They’re opposite. They’re negatives.

And if all I did after taking pictures with a film camera was look at the negatives . . . yeah, I wouldn’t be inspired either.

So, something has to be done with those negatives.

You could throw them away, I suppose. But then nothing beautiful would come of them!

Negatives have to go through a very specific and intentional process. And it’s all done in the dark. (Here’s a little article about how it works.)

So, why not let God take me through His very intentional . . . and miraculous! . . . process of developing those negatives in my life?

If I trust God, and if I love God, then I can believe what God says. And He has said that “we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose” (Romans 8:28). Even it if it takes till eternity before we actually figure out how on earth it was true.

We can give thanks in all things. We can rejoice ever more. Though we may not feel like it, we can still be happy and thankful and grateful and kind and sweet on the inside all the time. It’s called the fruit of walking in the Spirit. (Galatians 5:16)

So, when I feel like being negative, maybe it’s time to go back and fiddle around with some film photography again.