Thursday, February 04, 2010

At a Dead End? Search Out the Matter - Apples of Gold - February 4, 2010 -vi-

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Apples of Gold
 

Radio Script for February 4, 2010

“At a Dead End?  Search Out the Matter”

 

Hello, I’m Doug Apple…with Apples of Gold.

A friend of mine videotaped my daughter’s wedding.

I told him, “Just capture the footage, lots of footage, then I will edit it myself later.”

Now I don’t know why I’m using words like “videotape” and “footage” because there was no tape, and no footage.  It was all digital.

He borrowed a nice HD Sony camera from someone, and he gave up most of his Saturday to shoot the video.  That night he gave me the camera and said he needed to hurry up and return it.

So I moved the video files from the camera to an external hard drive and returned the camera.  Then I tried to watch the videos on my computer, and they wouldn’t open.  Not a good sign.

The Sony camera had created .mts files, which is a special kind of file that you apparently can’t just pop open and play on your computer.

Great.  Now what?

What would you do in that situation? 

Well, I have a nice video editing program on my computer, so I figured I could just use it to watch the wedding, but it didn’t work.  So now what? 

Now it’s time to get on the internet and “search out the matter.”

The internet is a great place to do research, if you can find reliable sources

Some sources said I needed to convert the .mts files to something else, so I finally found a conversion program that would do the job.  But it was very slow.

It took me several hours to convert all the videos, then I decided to burn a test DVD.

And it looked cruddy.  Great.  All that work for nothing.  We used a Sony HD camera, but the result looked like something from a camera made by Crayola.

Well I was not going to spend hours and hours editing her wedding video just have it come out cruddy, so it was back to the drawing board, back to more internet research.

Ah, another helpful tip.  I can download the videos right into iMovie, at their original quality, but I need to use a “FireWire.”

Great!  I have a FireWire right here! 

But it turned out to be the wrong size, so I needed to either buy one or borrow one.  I drove around Tallahassee.  I sent out text messages.  I tweeted, and I still couldn’t get my hands on what I needed.

So I went back home and did even more research. 

Ah, another tip.  Just use a little feature called “import camera archive.”

So I did, and there it was!  My daughter’s wedding, in the pristine digital glory that I expected all along.

Now, do you see how that worked?  I started out with no idea what to do, not a clue.  But I began “searching out the matter.”  I dug deeper and deeper, got input from one person, then another. 

At different points I thought I had the answer, only to realize I didn’t.  Then I found something that worked, but not that well.  I could have settled for “not that well” but decided to keep searching until I had fully “searched out the matter.”

And that’s today’s lesson.  It’s the lesson of “searching out the matter.” 

You’ll find it in Proverbs 25:2.  It says, “It is the glory of God to conceal a matter, but the glory of kings is to search out a matter.”

I don’t know exactly what King Solomon was thinking when he wrote that proverb, but I do know that there is a certain glory to searching out a matter.

I met a young man this week who said he wants to have a national TV program.  In the last couple of years he has built up a popular cable show, and he said he wants to go national.

But get this.  He doesn’t know how.  However, he has the drive and determination to search out the matter.  At some point he is going to make the leap.  He’ll go from not knowing how to knowing how, and it will come as he diligently searches out the matter.

Now how about you?  Are you standing at a dead end?  Do you have goals and dreams?  Do you even feel like God has given you a vision, but you have no idea how to do it?

Well don’t just stand there waiting for someone to help you.  Make a move, and here is where you can start.

You can start by heeding the words of Proverbs 25:2. 

Get determined, dig in, and begin searching out the matter.


Comments?

E-mail me:  dougapple@wave94.com.

May God bless you today!  With Apples of Gold…I’m Doug Apple.


© 2010 The Arrow’s Tip 
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(Proverbs 25:11 – “A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in settings of silver.”)

Why “The Arrow’s Tip”?  Each morning, after diligently seeking the Lord, I write Apples of Gold.  Then before I release it to the public I pray one final prayer, “Lord, send forth your arrows.”  I envision Apples of Gold as arrows, tips dipped in the river of the water of life that flows from the throne of God (Rev. 22:1), sailing toward the hearts and minds of men and women around the world.

Doug Apple
General Manager - Wave 94
Christian Radio for
Tallahassee
PO Box 4105
Tallahassee, FL  32315
(850) 926-8000

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