It’s Monday night and I’ve had the weekend to savor my experience this past week at Pursuit 2016: A Way in the Wilderness. I’ve been stalking this conference since the very first one 5 years ago when another photographer in my area told my friend about it who told me. Until this year, the conference has always been in the fall -usually only a couple weeks after the beginning of the school year. Being a home school mom, I just never felt right about up and leaving the kids for a week right after we got the ball rolling. When I saw that Karen Stott decided to have a Spring Pursuit I jumped at the chance to go and couldn’t wait!

The question keeps going around – “What’s your take away? What has God been speaking to you this week? What’s your ‘word’?” I am not a creative writer. It’s always been easier for me to write more technically (you know, the good old 5 paragraph essay with 3 main points an intro and a conclusion). So it’s hard for me to eloquently distill my experience last week into just a few beautiful words. But as I’ve been looking over my notes and thinking and praying, I believe it comes down to this one word: GOD.

At every turn – in every session, every talk, every conversation, GOD was present. I’m not totally sure what I had been expecting, but when you gather 200 beautiful, creative, driven women for a few days, it seems likely the conversation would turn to things like best business practices, how to gain a following, how to reach the top. I was so delightfully and pleasantly surprised that this was actually not the case. Instead of striving, we were encouraged to be content. Instead of glorying in success, we were reminded that sometimes the most beautiful things come out of the wilderness… the dirt, the failure. Instead of maximizing a following, we were consistently pointed to the ONE we follow. Instead of competition, we were rallied to community.

I came home more aware of God’s love for me, of His creativity expressed through gifted hands, of the beauty of the Gospel, of the fellowship I have with sisters I’d never even met before because of Christ’s work on our behalf. What a joy to look around a room full of women as we worshiped knowing that we were united – not because we are “creatives”, but because of the God who created us. Wow. It was pretty incredible.

I am so thankful for Karen’s vision and for the heart of all the ladies who served to make this conference happen. It was clear that their passion is to glorify God and I know that He was! Did I come home inspired to excel in my photography and use my gifts to the fullest? Yes, definitely! But I also came home inspired to make my husband and family a priority. To love people well and serve those around me. To use my time wisely and to take care of myself so that I can better care for others. To join hands with those around me and to use whatever platform we have to be salt and light.

Ha! I guess I had more words than I thought and actually there is so much I left out (my awesome roommate Jen, the beautiful roundabout hike my new friend Hollie and I took trying to find the Old Mill which really just allowed us to have great fellowship, the delicious food, the awesome staff at Winshape, the UH-MAZING goodies that awaited us at every turn, the laughter and tears, the beautifully humble, vulnerable, Word-centered talks by our speakers, the gorgeous outdoor dinner, and the late night and airport restaurant talks with another new friend Corry to name a few…it was all pretty epic). I am sad that this is the last Pursuit Conference but so grateful that God allowed me to attend before it ended (and here’s hoping it comes back one day). I end this post with the words of the song running through my head, “You’re a good, good Father. It’s who You are…”