God with a megaphone

Do you ever feel like you aren’t sure you’re on the right path? Sometimes, it’s so hard to know; and really we can’t always know. So, we do good things, we make good choices, we follow the rules and take the time. And while doing all this, we just trust that if God had other plans for us, he would somehow let us know.

Sometimes, it’s a whisper. We share some kindness or some joy and we lean in with our hand cupped to our ear and close our eyes really tight and at a barely audible level we hear, “keep going.”

It feels good.

Then, we might find ourselves filled with doubt. We might be telling ourselves we can’t face this challenge or it will never pay off anyway and then the message is a little louder. We sit, scrolling through our phones or daydreaming away and see a reminder of why we do what we do and calmly close our eyes and we hear, “Keep going!”

Yes! We almost lost it, but we’re still here. We are still on the path we belong on. We have not strayed too far from His plans. We are here.

A little while later, we have fought battles, we have overcome doubt and fear, we have worked really hard. But still, are we doing the right thing? Those little questions creep in. Is this the right path? Is this what I am meant for? And we continue forward, in spite of these little questions in our minds. I wouldn’t quite call them doubt, but they aren’t certainty either. We push on, unknowing. Then it happens, an obvious sign, an undoubtable confirmation… God with a megaphone, “KEEP GOING!”

And we are blessed to know. We know not everyone gets a sign and this is a special moment we will always remember; a moment we knew we were in the right place. A comfort. A gift.

This weekend was a megaphone kind of weekend. It was loud and perfectly crystal clear that we are doing what we are meant to be doing.

We had two scheduled photo shoots this weekend. Both on Saturday. That’s a big weekend anyway, we decided to divide and conquer. Kathleen and Micki did one shoot Saturday morning, and photographer Scott and I did another in the afternoon.

The morning shoot went great! There were dinosaur costumes and lots of smiles involved.

In the afternoon, as I was nearing the park where we had scheduled the photo shoot, Scott called me to tell me it was closed for a Halloween event! NOOOO! This photoshoot had been rescheduled due to weather and of course, I called the first time but didn’t bother the second time. What were we going to do!?

So, I pulled over and called Micki and we started brainstorming. Thankfully, the family we were meeting was running a little late so Scott and I pulled into a parking lot to regroup. As we were talking we came upon the topic of some cool photos Scott had taken at a Japanese type garden I didn’t recognize. Tony, the receiver of this particular photo shoot, wanted to find a Japanese garden but we hadn’t had much luck. Surprisingly, it’s very expensive to have a photoshoot in the Japanese garden at Como Zoo.

Scott said it was just down in Bloomington at Normandale Community College. Thirty miles. So, we called Tony and his family and asked if they wanted to relocate and go on a last minute adventure across the metro. They said yes!

We hadn’t called or checked in, but Scott said the garden had always been open when he visited so I prayed on the way there. Please let the garden be open. Please let this all work out. Please let Tony get the pictures he’s hoping for. And it did, it worked out so great.

The garden was absolutely beautiful and we were able to work around the many other people taking photos. Scott has a knack for framing pictures and cutting out unfavorable stuff in the background. Tony and his family left with smiles. We all had an amazing evening and ended up only going about 45 minutes beyond the time we had originally planned. It was absolutely an answered prayer.

Flash forward to the next day. Micki is in Eau Claire, WI for her own family stuff. They are at a park and little does she know, a family is there waiting for their own photographer to show up. They had taken the time to schedule a photoshoot for this special day as their dad had been diagnosed with ALS and was scheduled to sing with his quartet for the last time that day. There was no photographer in sight, they had been stood up.

In a post on Facebook, they shared that they had then asked the daughter’s boyfriend to take some photos with an iPhone, since they were all dressed up and ready.

In comes Micki. As they put it, “a woman with a fancy camera around her neck”. She went up intending to ask if they wanted her to snap a few photos with their phone when they informed her that their photographer had stood them up, they intended to have professional photos taken.

Micki of course spoke up and volunteered to take the photos, then told them about Brave Souls Photography and offered another, planned out shoot if they wanted it. They sung her praises on Facebook and Micki obviously felt very blessed to be in just the right place at the right time… although, I suppose that’s where she was meant to be at that moment.

Sometimes, our little signs that we are on the right path and doing the right things are so quiet… and sometimes, like this weekend, the signs are booming loud and obvious.

Thank you to God for showing us the way. What a blessing! Thank you for giving us the confidence to keep pushing knowing we are exactly where we are meant to be. Praying you find your signs, too.

In Hope and Love… The BSP team