Daniella and Rob are awesome and so was their wedding. There's no better feeling than packing my gear at the end of a wedding celebration and giving a big hug to the bride and groom and knowing that was just happened was so much more than a business transaction. When I connect with a couple...that's why I do this. I hope that you are as infected with Rob and Daniella's smiles as I was that whole day! Also, how great is the Webb Barn? I wish I could shoot there all the time. Enjoy!
Hope and Anchors
It feels silly to write about my life in quiet Connecticut when the world is falling apart at the seams and needs our hands to piece it back together. But I also believe there are stories to be heard and we need to keep sharing, to keep speaking hope into the world. Not the fake hope, the privileged hope, or the hope of people who don't suffer much, but the hope that all humanity shares in the deep of the soul and the dark of the night. The hope for morning, for light, for the world to stop bleeding. The hope as an anchor of the soul.
"We have this as a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul, a hope that enters into the inner place behind the veil"
In my son's room there is an anchor on the wall. In my bible, Hebrew's 6:19 is covered in thick neon-yellow highlighter. My wife's bracelet has an anchor hanging from her wrist. My journal has sketches of anchors with words of triumph and hope around them. But then it all seems foolish when you read the stories from across an ocean, or down the street. Why am I obsessed with hope when many others face a much more hopeless dawn today?
But I know why. It's because we must hope. It's in our blood. Even when life seems easy, we know the truth and we must hope in the midst of war. Some of us get to sit at a computer and write about fear while others are whispering their last breath of hope into the air, praying it isn't shot down before it reaches His ears.
We have a part to play, and it goes beyond the fake hope. The real hope is something we act upon. Real hope is believing that the world doesn't have to be this way, and even if it does, we won't stand by quietly. Real hope is people with resources giving to those who have none. Real hope is using your time and talent to lift others out of despair. Real hope is believing that time and space can't stop us from loving in a tangible way.
Giving money isn't the only way to put hope into action, but it's one way:
Are you a writer? Maybe you need to write about this. Are you a doctor? Perhaps you should travel and provide aid. What is a unique way that you can put hope into action? If it's not about this particular devastation, there are plenty of other options. Whatever you do, remember that Hebrews 6:19 is about a hope that goes so far beyond a feeling, into the core of our existence, and it calls us to be a people of the cross who do more than talk.
Parenting Reflections
I posted the following on instagram just a while ago:
"In a day when parents are told to surround their children in bubble wrap and a blindfold to keep them "safe", I'm compelled to bring my children to the wilderness where they can wander, breathe, and explore. Growing up afraid of the world will never yield men and women who pioneer and the lesson here is this: until we are pushed beyond our own abilities there is no need for faith. We were born to explore, to learn, and to trail blaze. It's in our blood. There is a way to teach children safety without chaining them to the ground. The alternative, I fear, is a generation of men and women afraid to think, to speak, or to live fully. My prayer is these children would grow into people of Faith and Action, guided by God's spirit into a life of fearlessness."
I'm not really looking to do anything other than offer up my thoughts as a father of two young boys who thirst for the outdoors every day. It can be exhausting but it makes me so incredibly proud that I have two explorers in my house...that I haven't squelched their desire to learn about the world and their creator by telling them "Stop!", "Be careful!", or "Don't do that!". Of course, there are times we need to do those things...when there is mortal or moral danger...but I've noticed it can become a default mode for parents.
Rather than going on a journey with them, we prefer our kids to stick to the sidewalk, to keep up with the crowd rather than picking a flower. But I've been learning the joy and pleasure of slowing down, seeing the world through the eyes of a young pioneer, and teaching them what I know...and just letting them run in the fields and the sun.
Perhaps I'm just inexperienced, but I truly hope this instills a sense of wonder and freedom to explore as they grow into young men...and I hope that it would help develop them into faithful and fearless people among their peers. That they would be trail blazers and not men who simply follow what everyone else finds comfortable.
#fearless