"Taking too many pictures”

This story may not seem to further my story about my trip to Africa, but it means something so I have to share it.

Does everyone remember the sitcom “Growing Pains” from the late 1980’s. I hardly ever even watched the show, but who can forget Mike Seaver, played by the teen-age heart throb Kirk Cameron. I was never into that kind of stuff, and by then I was well into my twenties and married. Kirk Cameron was too young for me anyway, closer in age to my nieces, Paula and Leann.

Kirk Cameron had become a Christian back then, even if it wasn’t well known until years later. In 2008, he made the low-budget movie “Fireproof”, but years before that he came to Lifest to speak.

He was listed as one of the headliners, sharing his message on the Main stage one afternoon. Earlier that day, he had agreed to a more impromptu, intimate talk just outside of his trailer. Of course, I went to it, me and only other women in their 30’s and early 40’s.

He talked about his faith and how he had come to be where he was in his life. I didn’t listen too much; I just stood there with my mouth hanging open, not believing how incredibly gorgeous he was. I was maybe 25 feet away, clutching my old 35 mm camera with its telephoto lens. I tried to pay attention to what he was saying, but if I looked at him too much, I just got weak in the knees. So, I just snapped a bunch of pictures instead.

Now, anybody who knows me should realize that I am not usually like that. No matter how rich or how good-looking or how famous someone is, we are all just the same. Nobody is better than anybody else. But for that one hour that one weekend afternoon, somebody was way better looking than anybody else I had ever seen.

Later that afternoon, I went to listen to Kirk Cameron on the Main stage. I got comfortable in my seat and fell asleep. I woke up not feeling too guilty, because I had heard him speak earlier – not that I remembered much of what he said – and I had taken all those pictures.

This was before digital cameras were the rage. My old 35 mm SLR had been a faithful friend for over 20 years. I didn’t need any fancy new fangled gadget to get the best photographs around.

The next week, I took my rolls of film in to be developed. When I got the pictures back, there were great shots of the different bands and speakers and our campsite. Not a single picture of Kirk Cameron. A whole section of the negatives in the middle of the roll was blank.

I don’t know. You can say that it was just a weird thing that happened, or that I was so flustered by being that close to this good-looking star that I forgot how to work my own camera. I just can’t help thinking that there was more to it than that. I think it was God’s way of knocking me upside the head, saying you have got to get your priorities straight and realize what really matters here.