Latitude - the ability to have Grace for one another - freedom from restrictions. The attitude of making space for someone else - someone who might not see things quite like yourself or more correctly someone who you don't see quite like yourself. They may be those different people, Landcruiser drivers, Canon shooters or even photographers who don't "get" film (some said in jest!). In photography the term "exposure latitude" is used to describe the extent the sensor or film can be overexposed or underexposed and still give an acceptable result. Something similar is the dynamic range which is the ability of the digital sensor or film to record light from the deepest shadows to the brightest highlights.
Cameras with poor or narrow dynamic range only capture the normal or middle of the road light values and the shadows become a noisy mess whilst the bright lights are clipped and blocked out - their output is rather limited - in fact only the best cameras can compare to the human eye. Black and white film photographers have a "trick" called pull processing whereby they increase the exposure and decrease the film development time afterwards allowing them to keep the shadow details and retain the highlights. This Pull Process is such an analogy for "getting" those who don't fit into our exposure range - spend more time with them (increase the exposure) and spend less time about working them out (decrease the processing)!
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| Beautiful Welcome note with Eph 3:8-21 and two chocolates |
Being Sunday the HS25 students went to church which happened to be Surprise Sithole’s church. There I experienced some Pull Processing - worshipping in a new way out of my safe middle range whilst learning a few much needed and liberating dance moves! At some point my mind went back to the word “latitude” and I thought of the scripture I had received yesterday. Our pastor Johan Smith forwarded a scripture for us which happened to be a personal favorite from the 80s and as we arrived in our room last night there was this beautiful welcoming note from our leaders, two Ferrero Rocher chocolates and the very same scripture from the end of Ephesians 3 ......And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have the power, together with all the Lord's holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ ..... Now to Him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine... Well at the time I was blown away by the coincidence but in church it was if He just revealed how narrow and limited my view and outlook was of Him. Reflecting on the scripture He reminded me of the promise and that He was about to explode my tiny perspective of who He really is and give me a grasp and glimpse of His sheer Hugeness! This all happened during the most beautiful worship and the tears were flowing - a messy affair! There is so so much more of Him!
After an amazing word brought by Pastor Jean Nicole it was time for lunch and we were escorted to outside buildings. There we ended up in a side room where we enjoyed a delicious lunch and met some more incredible students with inspiring stories. On the wall behind us we noticed a beautiful wall mural of Noah's Ark and it seemed familiar - it turned out to be the very mural our daughter Kelly had painted on her YWAM DTS training a year ago! God is so Good!
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| The wall mural in the outside building of Iris Church which Kelly worked on |
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