Friend or Fan?

There's a new trend popping up on my facebook news feed, and it's really got me thinking. 

Photography Fan Pages.

A lot of the folks I'm friends with on facebook have started their own photo business ventures, and created facebook fan pages to go along with them. [If you're somewhat unfamiliar with the way facebook works, ask the closest 13 year-old.] I guess the point of that is to separate their "personal life" with their "business". Totally understood. After all, I'm not likely going to hire someone that takes tons of pictures of themselves in their bathroom mirror with the flash on….

Anyways, seeing all these little fan pages pop up got me thinking: "Should I create a "Joshua Cruse _______" Fanpage?"

I've debated it back and forth. My first question was, "what will fill in the ________"? After all, I do music, composition, video production, videography, lighting design, church tech consulting, and dessert almost every evening at Crave. Do I create separate fan pages for each? Do I create one page with many segments? Do I just create a "Joshua Cruse" page and link it to my website? Would that be too egotistical? Ahhh!

So, I got to thinking about the "fan" idea. More importantly: what is a fan? Why would someone be a "fan" of mine? How would that benefit them?

Then tonight, I had a profound revelation:

Fans will let you know when you succeed and when you fail,

Friends will help you succeed and help you up when you fail.

If I had fans, they would probably only hear what I chose to tell them.

If I had more friends, we would converse.

Fans get to see your results.

Friends get to be a part of what you produce.

Fans have followers.

Friends have relationships.

I guess what I'm trying to say is…

I'd rather people see me the way I am, instead of seeing how I'd like them to see me.

I'd rather be that person that you "get to know", instead of that person you "know of".

I'd rather be your friend.

What do you think: Friends or Fans?

All good with God's good.

"...the joy of the LORD is your strength." - Nehemiah 8:10

Wow. Here it is. The end of summer.

What a ride.

I recently had the joy of taking a great vacation with my mom to Virginia Beach. I decided it'd be a great opportunity to try taking a photo I've wanted to capture since 9th grade. One day in Mr. Martin's 9th grade Earth Science class, he showed us a picture similar to the one above. He told us that since the earth rotated, if you took a long exposure picture at night, you'd capture the movement of the earth, and the result would be "star trails"streaking across the sky. Well, 6 years later, I finally captured that picture seen above.

On this trip, I experimented a lot with time lapse. And by "a lot", I mean 10,000+ individual frames that when compiled together and sped up, give a look into what goes on around us that we can't perceive in our view of "time". I've always been fascinated with time-lapse videography and photography, but it wasn't until this past summer that I really understood why.

2 Peter 3:8 says, "But do not forget this one thing, dear friends: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day. The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. Instead he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance."

The way I perceive time isn't the way God sees it. God works in His time, not ours. In our TGIF generation (Twitter, Google, iPod, Facebook), we want instant results. We ask a question, and we can barely wait for the page to load on our smartphones. We even get frustrated at how long it takes our computer to boot up. 

That same feeling can apply to other ventures in life; "Why is it taking me so long to get through school?", "How long is it going to be until I meet that person I'm going to spend the rest of my life with?", "When am I going to be recovered and well enough to get back out and resume my normal life?", and the list goes on. 

While taking the picture at the top of this post, I couldn't physically perceive the movement of the earth, but it was.

Sometimes in life, we can't physically perceive the tangible evidence that God is working in our lives, but still He is.

God promised us that He has plans for us. Prospering plans. Plans to give us hope and a future in Him. Even plans for eternal life! He NEVER fails us, He is mighty to save, and He gives us strength to face each new day. 

That's where I'm at right now in life -- basking in the joy of the LORD, asking for daily break,  and thanking God for each day and all that's in it.


And, it took all summer and everything that happened in it to get me here. 
It's been tough. It's been life-changing. There have been some tough decisions. There have been some tough conversations. There will be lots of changes. 
But God has done some amazing things. In His time, He is working all things together for His good. 


And for the first time, in a long time,


I am all good with His good.