Sailboats

I want to tell you the story about the meaning behind my logo.

My photography logo.

For those of you who have never seen it before, here it is!

I created the graphic in Illustrator and set it on top of a long exposure night sky shot I took. I’m actually pretty stoked with the way it turned out.

BUT, that’s beside the point.

The question I get from others when they see my logo is typically:

Why a boat?

I’ll provide a little background about me first; I love Jesus Christ and hold Him as my Lord and Savior. He has given me life and is the reason I live. I believe that He is the Son of God, that He died for my sins, and was resurrected three days later, in a glorious triumph over death. Before His death and resurrection, however, while He dwelled on Earth, He happened to do a lot of work with boats; in fact, He called four of His very disciples from a boat. Smelly, dirty, uneducated, low-on-the-totem-pole fishermen who spent their days doing smelly, dirty work on a smelly, dirty boat.

Not exactly what you’d expect to be “disciple material.”

But that’s what’s so beautiful about it. Jesus did not call them because they had stunning resumes and great social skills, but because He had chosen them. It was nothing more or less than that.

“God does not choose the qualified, He qualifies the chosen.”

I don’t know who originally said the above quote, but I do know I love it. It is perfectly reflects the way Jesus chose His disciples, especially those fishermen. He didn’t surround Himself with the most elite, wealthy, cool, best-looking, over-qualified group of people He could find. No, His disciples were fishermen, tax collectors, doubters, hot-heads; these dudes were down in the dumps.

He was not choosing the qualified.

He was qualifying His chosen.

It’s a super humbling thought to realize that our achievements and successes do not impress God. Our dusty collections of trophies and medals don’t exalt us in His eyes. Our “try harder, do better” attitudes do not make God proud; in fact, none of this is about us.

It is by God and His perfect justice and infinite mercy that we can “live by grace and walk in love,” as my dear friend once said.

So, why a boat?

Because a boat, to me, is a beautiful reminder that God isn’t impressed by our accomplishments, and He isn’t afraid to use broken vessels.