It has been a little time since I posted which I have spent with my son and daughter in law as they welcomed our granddaughter into the world. I am so grateful for this gift of retirement that allowed Thomas and I to spend extended time with them.
For 37 years I was a teacher. There were different teaching positions, good and bad years, hard and easy years. The last 4 years were probably the hardest. I was ready for a change and so greatly relieved when I walked out of my office for the last time. I didn't know what the change would be. At first I just wanted to rest. We also planned a long trip, adventure as it turned out, to celebrate being able to travel at some other time than school breaks. After the trip was over and we were back home it was time to think about a new job. Retirement gives you an overwhelming list of possibilities; places to volunteer, social groups to join, time to read and learn, time to do your hobbies, time to travel. So how will I use retirment The thing about following Christ is that he always does the unexpected - his plans are greater than ours. Five years ago I would never have thought that I would call myself a photographer. I just can't believe I define myself in that way. I also would have never have defined myself as a writer. But here I am writing a daily blog about my images and scripture. I have come to think of this as my new job, one given to me not sought after. I do the things of a job. I work hard at writing and editing photos. I study scripture more. I practice and work to learn more about photography. I have a daily routine but one that is not determined by a clock. I work at maintaining a website and an email newsletter. I am also grateful that I can give this work away for free. Thomas and I have been fortunate and have planned financially so at least for now we can afford for me not to work to meet our daily needs. I have been amazed at how the website grew from an idea to a reality and seeing God's hand in all of it. I see how God took the idea and helped me work out how the blog would work. I have been amazed at the words he has given me. This morning I went back over my posts and I can't believe that I wrote that, having never been a writer or even enjoying writing. I have also felt so supported by friends and family who daily read and hear and see God in the words and pictures. I have come to think about my new job as ministry. I have never really thought in terms of ministry. Ministry means something different to each person, I think, and each Christian must work that out for herself. In my search for new resources, my pastor, Ellen Di Giosia, pointed me to an amazing resource about the liturgical year called TextWeek. In exploring the site I read about the creator of the site Jenee Woodard. She sees her work on the site as ministry, which she defines as what she does with her life to explore what it means to be human and to use her gifts to serve others resulting in joy and delight. I like this new understanding of ministry. I want my new job, this website, to be my ministry. I don't know how long the blog will last or where God will lead me next. But I do know that as long as I serve him, he will take the gifts he has given me, even the new one of photography, and do things I never even imagined. I do know that right now the website is his and it exists to bring him glory. I pray it will always do that.
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For the past several years I have chosen a word for the year to remind me of important things. I praying about what I word I will choose for the upcoming year towards the end of the current year - and God has always given me a word.
My word for this year is: Illuminate Until I started photography I really didn't notice how many times light is mentioned in the bible. Light and darkness are strong metaphors used to describe so many things. When you take a picture you are capturing light on a sensor so without light there is no image. The quality of the light that is present changes what is captured by the camera. As a photographer I am trying to capture light. To illuminate is to use light - to capture light, to bring understanding. As I was thinking about how to share my images on a website I came across the verse that became part of the title of the website, "The unfolding of your word gives light." There was the metaphor of light again. If I am going to keep this website up I will have to have light - God will have to illuminate my thinking as I read his word - he will have to bring images to mind that I have taken. I know that without his illumination there will be no words to share. Another way that I have seen the word Illuminate recently is in the St. John's Bible. If you don't know what this is, it is the first illuminated bible in 500 years. This year I had the privilege of hearing Donald Jackson, the calligrapher leading the creation of this bible, and seeing copies of the St. John's Bible. I am not sure why but from the very first time I read and saw images of this bible I was touched in a way that I never expected and I can't explain. It just touches my soul, make me think, and makes me cry for its beauty. It started me thinking about art and its purpose in my world and the drive to create - to illuminate. So this is my word to be illuminated by the unfolding of God's word which I want to study in a deeper way to learn to better capture light, illuminations, with my camera to share my illuminations with others Do you have a word for the year? How do you chose your word? How do you use your word during the year? |
This page is in blog format so the posts are in order with the most recent first. Here I hope to post some of the things that I am learning from by Bible study and other topics.
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All the photographs in this site were taken by me. If you use or share anything from my website, please link back to this page. You are free to view and share this website by linking but I ask you not to download or redistribute anything from the site. Thanks.
Soli Deo Gloria,
1 Corinthians 10:31
© 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024 Karen Milligan
1 Corinthians 10:31
© 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024 Karen Milligan