Behind the Scenes

Thanks to everyone for all of the kind words and thoughtful expressions sent my way yesterday, via e-mail, Marilyn's Facebook, Twitter and comments here.  It means so much to me every time I hear from old friends (and a few of the friends I heard from yesterday are getting really old!).  If you would like a CD of The Great Adventure slide show so you can see the pictures in all their glory (keep reading), just e-mail me your address and I will ship one out to you.  You guys are the best!

I have heard from a few people over the past year how interesting it has been to get to see "behind the scenes" of the youth events you attended.  Most students have no idea how close to disaster many youth events are.  When you are a teenager, you don't think about how things happen; you are just glad they do!  Today I want to take you behind the scenes of yesterday's special video- and the story of how it was almost never seen by anyone but my family.

I began working on the slide show for the "blog-aversary (thank you Meagan!)" post a long time ago, searching for pictures and scanning old ones.  About a month ago, when Marilyn and Will left on vacation, I began to work on putting the pictures to the music.  Almost every day I would change or add pictures, trying to get things just right.  It may just look like music and pictures to you, but to me, EVERY picture is in exactly the right spot in the music.  And after all, I was doing this whole thing for me!  So on Tuesday afternoon I finally pronounced the show finished, and uploaded it to YouTube.  It looked wonderful, especially when you looked at it full screen.  Even the really old pictures looked good.  Then Wednesday I watched it again and did the blog post to go with it, so everything would be ready to post on Thursday morning.  I was so psyched...

Thursday morning about 6:15 I posted the whole thing to Blogger, then went to preview it as I always do.  The post was there, but there was one small problem- the video was missing!  It seems that the music company that owns the music of Steven Curtis Chapman does not allow you to make YouTube videos with their music.  My video was no longer available to anyone but me.  After freaking out, and getting Will to check with his phone to make certain it was no longer visible, I began to upload the video using Blogger's video app.  This seemed to take forever, and then after it uploaded I still couldn't see it.  So I did it again.  This time it worked, but I was still not happy.  The pictures, which with YouTube had been clear even with a full screen view, were now small and a bit fuzzy.  The full screen version was blurry.  But there was not one thing I could do about it.  So that is what you saw yesterday, much to my disappointment.  But at least it was there...

Life seldom goes the way we plan.  Hours of hard work and planning often fall apart at the last minute.  Relationships are unpredictable.  Money and power are fleeting.  People will let you down.  Only one thing remains the same, yesterday, today and forever- and that is the love of God as found in Jesus.  He is the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and end.  And I hope that despite the small, fuzzy pictures, God's love was visible in that slide show.  As always, it's all about Jesus! 

Because of Jesus,