120: Mark Mabry: Being Led to Reflections of Christ

Mark Mabry is the photographer and creator behind the beautiful photos portraying Jesus Christ in the art collection called Reflections of Christ, which has been so transformative and a huge piece of not just art in our home, but a piece of my testimony that’s so powerful to me and my family. Mark also has an Instagram account, @reflectionsofchrist, where he shares thoughts about the Savior, insights, and inspiration behind the shots he created.  I was so curious to know more of the back-story behind what made him want to pursue this work. Today, Mark shares with me some incredibly inspiring stories about change, being willing to listen to God's direction, and little miracles that have happened as he's created Reflections of Christ. Mark wants to leave everyone today with this inspiring message that all of us have this glimmer of hope because hope is what keeps us alive. There's this little tiny light inside of us. Sometimes, it may feel like it's not even there. But when you dig down deeper, you can find hope that’s planted in us by God's loving son. Through the power of Christ, everything can be just, and bad things can turn good really fast once we acknowledge that the source of our hope is in Jesus. In this episode, you will hear: Mark originally created the Reflections of Christ exhibit as a part of an Easter pageant in their town. It sort of opened the floodgates for him because it became a massive hit. But shortly after, his past popped up – a sexy ad with him as the photographer got released. A lot of times, we feel like everyone's eyes are on our mistakes or character defects when they're really not paying attention because they’re also worried about their own character defects and whatever's going on in their life. There are so many great resources out there for people who struggle with addiction, but if we didn't need a Savior, then we could just go pay for some other resource to fix our problems.  Jesus is the only one who can wholly, perfectly, and completely heal people. He finds broken people who weren't even looking for him. He saves us, loves us, and makes us whole. Self-forgiveness is so hard. We think we can never rise above it. But you can rise above it, and you can be stronger than you were before you had the addiction.  Mark gives us a behind-the-scenes look at the Reflections of Christ. He wasn't worried about the technical aspect of it, but focused on the actor portraying Jesus Christ. He was intentional about having the presence of the Holy Spirit there.  When he called the actor to ask him to do the part of the new Jesus, he listed all the stuff he had done in his life that would not qualify him to play Jesus. It was the same man who was moved by Mark’s exhibit 18 years ago and decided to change his life. Mark realized that everybody showed this other element of Jesus, not just the actors who portrayed Jesus. Mark did depictions of Christ that are black. But he chose the actor not because he's a person of color, but because he was the right person to tell the story of Jesus getting up out of the grave.     Supporting Resources: Marks Website and art can be found at https://reflectionsofchrist.org/   Instagram: @reflectionsofchrist https://www.instagram.com/reflectionsofchrist/?hl=en   Mark’s personal Instagram: @itsmabry https://www.instagram.com/itsmabry/?hl=en  Subscribe and Review Have you subscribed to our podcast? We’d love for you to subscribe if you haven’t yet. We’d love it even more if you could drop a review or 5-star rating over on Apple Podcasts. Simply select “Ratings and Reviews” and “Write a Review” then a quick line with your favorite part of the episode. It only takes a second and it helps spread the word about the podcast. Episode Credits Produced by Emerald City Productions