Stepping away, preparing the way
For the past year, I have worked on A Worthy Treasure. I’ve been dreaming with the Lord, praying to help people build their desire for deep daily devotion for Jesus. He has finally brought me to this place to be able to share my faith journey. Worship always was a part of my life, but for many years I kept my faith in one hand and my career in another.
For 13 years I photographed beautiful weddings all over Southern California. If you love photography and all things lovely, then you would have loved following my business. My sister, Ellie, and I had started our wedding photography business waaaay back in 2008, soon after my wedding to my husband Dan. We loved being a part of weddings. There were so many pretty details and happy people that we had the privilege of immersing ourselves in.
All while I had developed my career as a sought-after wedding photographer, I had been also developing my desire to deeply worship the Lord. Our church had been going through a multi-year transformation of shifting our hearts to be fully devoted to Jesus. The two passions were both so near and dear to my heart. I wanted to deeply to share the visions and dreams the Lord was placing in my heart, but it was a challenge to hold a candle to two passions.
But it’s like Jesus says Matthew 6:24,“No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.
And just like that, a 13 year career as a wedding photographer shifted to become a missionary.
The story starts at the beginning of 2021 with a quiet moment and a prayer journal. I heard the Lord say, “Tif, I need you.” That was it. I heard the call and I responded. As I prayed about this crazy idea of leaving my career, I naturally went to my closest people for wise council. But what was the craziest part, is that as my mentors and leaders prayed about this transition, the more they heard from the Lord that this was the right thing to do.
My husband and I were even in sync! We decided, , that “Yes this is the time!”
As the Lord speaks, we have to listen. I mean, if the Lord says “go”, you go, right? Well, suffice to say, there was no plan beyond the Yes. I fully jumped out of a moving train and crash landed into full wilderness. I mean, if I had to come up with a better analogy, I don’t think I could. Except that maybe it was dark, with no moon and stars, and I didn’t have any supplies to survive. In the natural, it was a set up for death and failure.
Saying Goodbye...
That march of 2021, I spoke to my business partner about leaving the business we had built for so many years to pursue this amazing Vision from the Lord. As much as I thought it would be joyous, leaving may business was the most difficult thing I have had to do in my entire life.
It was really hard for both of us. It literally took everything that we had in us to step away from one another. As I handed over my portion of business to her, my heart broke over and over again. Why was my heart in pain? Why was I in a place of misery? The Lord had given me this beautiful vision to follow Him into sharing the gospel, but my heart was breaking over what I was leaving. It was very costly.
We finalized and cut the whole business to the core. It was so heartbreaking to think that the beauty of what we built together had ended in that season.
I walked through so much heartache and grief that I did not expect. I cried and cried in what I called the dark cold room, waiting for instruction from the Lord. I waited, prayed, journaled, wrote… cried some more, and listened quietly for His instructions. As the Lord waited in that dark room with me, we anticipated for the morning to dawn. While it was still dark, we dreamed together. Jesus and I talked about what a ministry might look like and who we want to reach. We discovered that this world desperately needs encouragement and hope. And not just “the feel good” kind. The kind that cuts deep, so that we can thrive.
As we dreamed, A Worthy Treasure was born.
I loved my career and loved all the people that crossed my path because of photography through the years. It wasn’t an easy decision for me to take the leap from being a successful entrepreneur to an unemployed missionary/worship leader this past year. But I can say that the Lord has carried me through such an amazing season of finding a deeper love in Jesus….
