Called.

I stopped teaching photography over two years ago.  I loved teaching.  My classes and students were never ordinary.  It wasn't unusual for students to cry in my classes.  Something in those few hours we spent together, in all those discussions of creativity and vulnerability and discipline and excellence- we'd pull out something beautiful.  We'd all leave more awake.  Women still stop me in Target to say thank you, and I love that.  What I did was get obsessed about something truly incredible, and I could not keep it in.  Giving that out was a holy experience.

My thing, my obsession, is light.  See the light. Look for it and find it.  Watch it pulse and wrap and expand.  Remove all the distractions and focus on what light is doing, what it's giving.  Harness the full potential of all your tools right now, instead of wanting for something grander; something you think holds all the answers to what you lack.  What you have in your hands is more than enough.  Be blown away by the power and potential waiting in every dark space; look beyond the shadows and find the light.  Intentionally go to the places the world calls forsaken and ugly, and shove it to the haters- there's beauty there.  Find it.  Then put all your skill and heart into working with it; tackle it with religious devotion.  Mark it and keep it.  Savor and share it. 

Substitute light for Jesus, and you have my life now; and I don't think it's a true substitution.  It's an expansion of one passion.  It's a calling.  

Calling isn't a job, though it may lead us to several of them over the years.  Calling isn't something we chase and may or may not ever catch.   God is not holding out on you; he's not playing a game of hide and seek, or waiting for you to wise up.  

Calling is meant to connect every big, mighty, universal thing we're meant for with gritty everyday living.  

Calling is our intimate connection to the divine; the way we partner our heads, hearts, and hands with the one who made us, redeemed us, and actively restores us to what we should be. It's where we actively participate with God's redemptive work.  God is sewing a torn world back together and he's inviting you to get in it with him.  

Calling is a core God-life connection intended for every human being, and it's illustrated in as many unique ways.  You are uniquely called to wake up; to see your wrongs made right, to grow up in Christ.  

Your calling is not limited by anything.  It's not limited by location, age, a job title, work experience, or any human relationship.  It's the thing that drives you, guides you, and feeds you wherever you are.  

How God fleshes this out in your life is just for you and him; no one else can do that but the two of you.  Say yes to that calling, and you'll live like a constant invitation for others to do the same.  Wide awake living is a holy contagion.

Your calling won't drop out of the sky.  Don't be afraid you'll miss it.  Surrender your notions of what you think it should be.  Your calling is found in your lifeline to Christ; and if Christ is in you, he's not going anywhere.  Don't ask God to give you a calling or a mission; realize it's already here and give him permission to uncover it. 

When he does, say yes and keep going.