Your favorite photos are a gold mine of clues about your divine calling!

In my scrapbook, one of my all-time favorite snapshots is captioned “King of the Beasts and His Zoo”! In the spring of 1982, my senior biochemistry class at Carson-Newman College threw a surprise costume party for one of the zaniest, and also one of the absolute best, teachers I have ever met: Dr. Frank Pinkerton. (I am the bubble-blowing student kneeling in the orange shirt and beanie with the teddy bear! Dr. Pinkerton wears the crown!)

Everyone in that class was bright and full of big dreams for the future, but everyone was also unpredictably hilarious and quirkily adventurous. Sadly, I lost track of most of them. But 31 years later, Dr. Pinkerton is now “Frank” to me. He has retired, but my husband and I still have a lively lunch with him and another former teacher whenever I travel back to Tennessee!

I love that long-ago picture because it captures so much of who God made me to be. When the picture was taken, I was learning, achieving, imagining, adventuring, connecting, and having a blast!

Prayerfully take a fresh look at one or two of your all-time favorite photos. You can get absolutely get at least 3 clues about your divine calling from your favorite photos. Below is a simple 3-step exercise that shows you how.

3 CLUES ABOUT YOUR DIVINE CALLING:

1. KNOW WHAT YOU VALUE.

• Prayerfully ask yourself:What do you love about your favorite photos? What do you love about the people, yourself in the photos, the circumstances, etc.? … Those are some of your values!
• Example:Some of my values from my favorite photos are adventure, learning, and achieving.
• Application:Which of your values do you want to live more fully?

2. KNOW WHAT DRAINS YOU.

• Prayerfully ask yourself:What would be the opposite of your favorite photos? That is probably what drains you!
• Example:I am drained when life is opposite my favorite photos: when I’m not learning, when life is routine instead of an adventure, when I get too serious.
• Application:What “drains” do you want less of in your current life? (Of course, some drains are occasions for serving. But too many drains will drag you down.)

3. SET STANDARDS FOR LIFE.

• Prayerfully ask yourself:What were you doing in your favorite photos, that most fully expresses who you are? Doing more of these things is “setting standards for life.”
• Example:One of my standards of life is that I plan quarterly adventures for travel, physical challenges, and learning new skills.
• Application:What “standards for life” will you set, in order to live your values more fully and more regularly?

WHAT DO VALUES AND STANDARDS FOR LIFE HAVE TO DO WITH DIVINE CALLING?

• Divine calling is not just WHAT YOU DO, but also WHO YOU ARE!
• If you DO something that prevents you from being FULLY WHO YOU ARE, that is not a good fit!
• But if you DO something that FULLY EXPRESSES WHO YOU ARE, you are more likely to live out your divine calling!
• Ultimately, God is the one who calls you. You do not call yourself. But God created you, and He will call you to DO from your BEING! … It is in Christ that we find out who we are and what we are living for. – Ephesians 1:11.