Super 8 Camera
Some of my childhood memories were put to motion by a Super 8 camera. Most people probably don't know this technique anymore: Before digital cameras, people were filming with video cameras. Before that, people were using the so-called Super 8 cameras where a small film roll, 8mm wide, stored the motions. The same film roll was then used with a projector to show vacations, family festivities or what you have. Nowadays Super 8 cameras stand for an outdated, old technique that nobody uses anymore. For me the Super 8 camera will always be connected with an experience that I once had at a low budget film festival many years ago:
After watching a movie with friends in a tiny theater I thought this festival could have been called a no budget film festival as well: The movie was made in a way that I felt I could have done the same with my father's old Super 8 camera on any given afternoon. But nobody wants to see a movie in a theater where you get the impression you could have done it by yourself with outdated equipment. You go to the movies because you want to see something special, not something ordinary. The problem was that I viewed my life at that time in the same way that I perceived this movie: As something ordinary, lacking any special gifting to make my life interesting for myself or others.
Was my perception of my life correct? Jesus told a parable of ten servants who each received one pound to do business with. That reflects the truth of God's word: Each one of us has received from our Creator talents, giftings, skills to enter into the calling God has given us. As it is in the parable, so it is in life: There is none who received no talent. What we are making out of it might be different, but everyone received something. Believing that one is without talents is believing a lie. As for myself I came out of this toxic self-image. But it seems that quite a lot of people - regardless of how skilled they really are - entertain this negative view of themselves. This is how the devil wants to keep us down, to tell us that we are unskilled, unsignificant. The remedy is to address these thoughts with the truth of God's word that tells us that each one of us is made in His image with unique talents that He has given us.