In The Echo Within, Robert Benson shows us how to discover our calling and live our destiny. He challenges that “our vocation is not only about the work that we do, it is about what shapes the work, about the person you become in and around that work as well. Vocation is about the things that shape the work before the worker even begins to work.”
Recently I’ve added a new photography section to my blog. I’ve always taken pictures to document life’s events like graduations, class reunions and birthday parties. But in the past few years I have felt nudged to let God take control of the shutter, letting the eye of the camera show me what I don’t see.
A friend was helping me post my first photographs on my blog and said, “Don’t worry so much about what your readers think, do it for you.”
“Really? Do it for me?”
My immediate reaction was that posting my photography for my enjoyment was self-centered, aggrandizing, and anything but humble. I protested loudly that God gives us gifts to help others and to bring Him glory, not to bring us pleasure or fame.
But my friend persisted, “No, you’ve missed my point. Your photography and writing are ways that you communicate with God. God sets up the picture and you push the shutter release. In that moment, you feel God’s presence. This experience with God shapes you in His image; it’s an important part of the photograph.”
My writing and photography are about the person I become when I use God’s gifts.
I pray that you will find your true calling by allowing God to shape you in the work that you do. Whether it is raising children, teaching, preaching, evangelism, sales, art, or another calling, God shapes you when you use your gifts to bring Him glory.
Blessings,
Agatha
(For my photography, click on PHOTO BLOG at the top of any page. You can sign up there for an RSS feed, or to receive an email update each time I post a new photograph. For a gallery of all previous photographs, click on MY PHOTOGRAPHY on the right sidebar).