I was 18. It was the winter of my senior year of high school. I was sitting in my room hiding from the gray weather and my family. A voice spoke to me and said, “Go to the church,” and told me to take my camera. I said no. It was cold, I didn’t like church, my family didn’t go to church, and I didn’t feel like it. But the voice continued. I couldn’t see the source. But I turned my back and said, “No.”
The voice persisted. It was a strong, insistant voice. Gentle but authoritarian. It would not leave me alone until I gave in, grabbed my camera, and drove to one of the 6 churches in my area. To make a long story short, the voice pushed me on from church to church until I had gone to all 6 churches in my area. That day, I started a church photography series, which led to me being invited to a peer’s youth group to photograph his church, which led to me being given my first Bible. A year later I got baptized.
God gives us our interests and talents. I had been getting into photography. At school I was doing a photography independent study. I thought it was just a meaningless hobby, important only to me. But photography is a God given interest. God speaks to us in our language, in ways we can understand. He used my growing interest in photography to draw me to Him. Photography increases my appreciation of and connection to the beauty of His creation, which is probably why He made me interested in it. I am a creative person. I don’t know all of God’s purpose for that yet, but I know He used some of it to draw me to Him. Words cannot express how grateful I am.
Nothing is an accident. Your pain is your testimony. Your skills can be gifts. That extra language you picked up might be to help you connect to someone with the Word of God. That artistic gift can be used to glorify and worship Him. Your hospitable spirit, knack for business, or public speaking ability can help build God’s Kingdom. And God will reach you where you are with His love, and use who you are to serve Him and to draw closer to you, His beloved daughter or son.
Life at Home 