Have you ever thought about what you are called to do? What you want to achieve in your life and which skills you need to achieve it?

When I first heard the verse about “the great” commission in Matthew 28 I thought that I would end up somewhere in a desert as a missionary. My social skills would fulfill the requirements and that’s all that mattered. But I was never excited about this idea. Of course there are people out there who love missions like this and there is nothing wrong with that… Anyway, I want to tell you something else.

I wanted to serve at church. Not sure whether I should do something I was already good at or if I should learn something new, I decided to do both. I would help out at the “welcome team” with my social skills that I already had and would learn how to take pictures in the “photography team.”

No idea how a camera works, it was really frustrating. The light during a church service isn’t very bright, people move around, and it’s hot. I felt like everybody was looking at me, realizing that every second picture was blurry or too dark to recognize colors (it was all just black in fact 🙂 ).

Ready to say hello to people, I felt content and happy that I could serve my church. They wouldn’t have to teach me a lot about it and that was all that mattered – to me.

After a few weeks I wanted to quit volunteering with the photography team. I couldn’t see any improvement nor the sense behind it. Why should we take pictures of the same thing every week? How could this serve the church or make new disciples? How could people be touched by it and get to know Jesus?

I was missing a vision for it. And I thought that I had to be qualified for it. Qualified to serve.

After having talked to people, and being pushed and encouraged by leaders, I learned many things.

You never need to be qualified to serve. Don’t give up right in the beginning – actually never give up. And you need a vision to persevere:

When I was frustrated about the pictures I took and why we were doing this every week, someone gave me a vision for it: People could see behind the scenes, people without a church can see what church can look like, friends of friends that are tagged on a picture realize how fancy worship can be and that we love to party and celebrate Jesus.

With a vision as a foundation I started to take the pictures for Jesus. Praying before every service that the Holy Spirit would show me things I can’t see, I started to enjoy it and really serve Him and my church. Not that I’m completely over my insecurities when walking through the rows but I have realized that I never have to be nervous when I serve the Lord.

After ten months of practicing I now love to take pictures. I still appreciate  welcoming people to church and loving on them, but after pushing through the difficulties in the beginning, something bigger begun. (It’s not the right time to tell you what this bigger thing is, but when I feel it’s the right time, I’ll let you know.)

There is one phrase I read in the beginning that was on my mind since then – and I love it:

God doesn’t call the qualified, He qualifies the called.

If we are ready to serve and take what God gives us, we don’t have to be qualified for it. He will give us what we need – we are his called children.