Prayer is something I have struggled with.. well more specifically, whether or not my prayers are heard, or if they matter… I’ve been praying diligently about where God wants to use me, that He would give me purpose, that I would feel fulfilled, and that He would show me why He made me a directionless creative amidst family and friends with paths to success laid out in front of them.
It’s been a long year and a half of questioning my career and who I wanted to be… which brought me to The World Race. I finally felt that I needed to give up all I had tried to “build” for something better. I didn’t know what better looked like, but it seemed like the World Race was on the right track.
Once at Training Camp, we were put into teams, and I felt like I wasn’t able to be completely myself during the team-building exercises. I am comfortable in leadership roles, but am more of a quiet leader, and I didn’t feel like I stood out as the obvious choice as Team Leader. So, when I wasn’t selected for that role, I started to question my value. Satan began to get into my head and tell me that I wasn’t a good enough Christian to lead this team. What a LIAR.
A few days later, I was told to go to a meeting, but wasn’t told why. When I got there, they said “Oh you don’t know why you are here? You’ve been selected for the Storyteller role.” What?! I didn’t even know that was a thing! Basically, I will be using my photography to tell visual stories about what God is doing through my team and my squad over this next year. I will have a mentor (who is an incredibly talented graphic designer and photographer) who will be coaching me along the way, and I can use any medium of creativity (design, drawing, video, photo) to tell the story of how God is moving across the world. If I would have been offered the Team Leader role, I’m not sure I could have done both. God knows what I need more than I do.
I was stunned. No one knew that I had been PRAYING for a mentor over the last two years to challenge me in my art. I left my job with no where to go, in search of a mentor and growth opportunities. I had been praying for God to show me how something as “frivolous” and “superficial” as art, could be something used for His glory. Over this last year I learned that it is a non-negotiable that my career/work has a purpose. And God DID answer my prayer, not in any way that I would have expected, but He took me to a place of desperation, where He told me to drop everything I had built (which is a big deal as a freelancer) to give me exactly what I had been praying for – a mentor, and a purpose, in 11 different countries….. say whhhhattt?!
I will be sharing these visual stories on this blog – so you all get a front row seat 😉 These will be used by the team in Gainesville on social media, website etc, to get others to jump on board with what God is doing in and through His people across the globe. That sounds like purpose to me.
