When the phrase “Be still” shows up every way you turn and there is no way to ignore it, the best thing you can do is obey.
In the midst of life’s noise and image overflow, the idea to stop and observe your surroundings seems overwhelming. However the results are engraved in my heart forever.
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In December 2014 I started a business mentorship program with a dear friend and fellow photographer. I joined her experimental group with the desire of creating new goals and a better plan for my wedding and portrait photography business. When our second meeting came around in January my heart was pounding and there was a need to share with her the real reason why I started doing photography; I wanted to tell her my original vision and what I was feeling guided to do.
Praying she wouldn’t find me crazy and strangle me for probably changing the course of our original goals, I poured out my heart to her. Every way I looked the verse “Be still” was showing up, I couldn’t ignore it anymore and I knew I had to obey and for the first time in a long time stop everything in my business and just seek God. I also told her how 8 years ago God gave me a vision; show people what they take for granted, let everyone see there’s beauty everywhere they turn. They are missing it.
Thankfully she didn’t find me crazy and she encouraged me to be obedient, to stop everything and first figure out what God wanted to show me and then we would figure out where to go from there. I had a new assignment, take the month of February to go out to the streets and shoot for two hours and create a collection out those images. While I didn’t know what I was looking for or where I would go everyday, I accepted my assignment and committed to my work.
When the month was over and I culled all my images, they showed stillness. Every image has its own lesson behind it, every time I drove around I was taught something new, about myself, my relationship with God, my character, my identity, my fears. And just like that the “Be still project” was born. Out of a need to stop, to surrender my control, surrender my dreams and seek bigger God given ones, to learn how to see and listen.
The images I compiled in this book you hold are the ones that spoke to me the most, the ones with a strong lesson that I want to share with you. It is my prayer that it speaks to you as it spoke to me, that it challenge you to take a step out of the norm and follow what God is calling you to do. It’s crazy scary, but the blessing behind obedience is far better than any words I can write down.
“Be still and know that I AM God” Psalm 46:10