I’m a story-teller.
I love to write and I am a photographer. Short stories, poetry, blogs, faith reflections, a single photo or a series of photos… pretty much anything that can evoke a sense of peace, a sense of worry, a sense of anger, a sense of joy, a sense of faith, or evoke memories or emotions, I’ve written or snapped a photo of it.
Once upon a time, I blogged to share these stories, both written and photographic. I blogged years ago on a regular basis, before blogging was “cool” and when people thought you were strange for sharing your life online, back in the late 1990s and early 2000s.
Then I met my now-husband Jerry in 2005 and I took a hiatus from blogging, to focus on cultivating our relationship and the eventual primary vocation of marriage I knew God was calling us into. I also took the time to focus on the secondary vocation that God has called me to, Youth Ministry (which is what I do as a job).
And though the hiatus from public, accessible-to-the-world story-telling grew into a longer period of time then I had planned, it hasn’t stopped the stories. And so, in the past 2 years I’ve felt God calling me to share stories again.
My response? Obstinacy.
Why? Because I think I’m too busy to add one more thing to my life for Christ. I think that because I am a Director of Youth Ministry working with Middle Schoolers and High Schoolers for 55+ hr a week job and because I am just beginning my vocation of marriage that God couldn’t be calling me to write, to share stories, to share photos, to blog. But after two years of God gently calling (and sometimes pushing me) I’m finally giving into the call…
The call to blog.
Fortunately, sometimes God places people in our lives that move our hearts and souls to action. He presents us with opportunities that we know cannot be anything but His will and his Divine intervention. And then, despite our hesitations, the Holy Spirit moves us to do as God wills.
I whole-heartedly admit, it’s strange to say you feel God is calling you to blog, but I know the Holy Spirit is moving me in the direction, however reluctantly. And AustinCNM (and the now-defunct ecumenical blog the J-listers) has given me the encouragement and the extra push to get started again, to begin again the endeavor that is blogging. To more fully engage myself in new media is a little intimidating to say the least. But I know God has a purpose in calling me into a deeper, more intentional and personal use of new media to share our Catholic Christian faith.
Why? I’m not entirely sure. But I do know that in my life I am being called to bring the light of Christ to others, reminding us all to humbly regard others as more important than ourselves (Philippians 2:3). It’s not about the “I”, like I was focusing on in my obstinacy. It’s about God and others. And if God is calling, who am I to say no? I’m called to use my gifts. And those gifts include those of being a blogger.
