Stay Mission Driven

Finding purpose that survives loss, uncertainty, and change

Night Aspen — All photos by author

This is the final essay in a series on the non-negotiables of self-directed creative work.

Night Traveler — 2017

“The moon just set over the western horizon, and a lunar twilight still lights the sky. The snow blanketing the forest floor is now glowing all around me, a pale luminescence that mirrors the sky above.

Midnight trees pass by like spectres — left and right — the only witnesses to my movement. My route is defined only by my sense of open spaces and the firmness of the trail-packed snow under my steps.

A meteor flashes through the Big Dipper, less than a moment, then is gone.

Beautiful in its brevity.

As I ascend a rise, the world drops below me. A lone aspen towers in the moonlight against the dawn glow, and on the horizon is a string of gleaming gemstones: the cities that I’ve left behind.

The wind whispers its secrets through the woods, but I cannot decipher them. Its touch cools my feverish face and hands, warm from my exertion.

Suddenly, a powerful gust buffets me.

I, like the meteor, am only in this world for a moment. The dawn approaches and will frighten away the wonderful mystery of the night. The day will make countless demands on me. Someday, an endless night will take me into the final mystery.

For now, I am content with this night.”

Present Day

That night hike, years gone now, remains indelible in my memory. Nothing reminds me of our place in the universe quite like the Milky Way overhead, the Aurora Borealis shimmering across the sky, or meteors flashing briefly through the night.

For me, it is evidence of a benevolent Creator. The more I experience the natural world, the more I see His fingerprints on everything.

What one may call mundane, I call a miracle.

Take the predictable spin of the Earth, which brings the sun into view every 24 hours. Nothing special there. But when it coincides with a gap on the horizon, a momentary rain, a ridge formed millions of years ago, and a singular soul, it becomes transformative.

The show from gray to glory felt like a gift just for me.

But maybe not.

Even in that moment, I needed to share it. Not just the beauty, but the One who placed me there among the clouds, the sun, and the towering ridges.

That need has developed into a mission that is much bigger than me. It keeps me going when I feel overwhelmed or uninspired.

I realized I needed something beyond work, relationships, or external success to orient my life. I needed something that gave me purpose, even when the nest was empty, the partner was gone, and my career was shuttered.

When I was at my lowest, when my external purpose had failed, I searched my inner landscape for something durable.

For weeks, I wrote a little every day about what I was grateful for in the moment, parts of my past that strengthened me, and what excited me about the future.

I brainstormed action words that I could do no matter where I was, how old I became, what state of health I found myself in, or how much money I had.

Through this personal journaling, I searched for words sturdy enough to build a life around.

Explore. Capture. Share.

Those were the ones I kept coming back to.

The idea of exploring and capturing felt deeply rooted.

I knew that exploration doesn’t have to be in the wilderness. It is something I can do anywhere. All it takes is curiosity and attention.

And I loved bringing my experiences home with me in some way. To capture them, I could write, take photographs, or even draw.

But, for me, the third word was where the real purpose came in. Without sharing, it would all seem pretty selfish and hollow. Passing along the blessings that were given to me was why I went exploring and capturing.

Allowing My Why to Drive Me

I wrote the bit about my night hike during an extremely dark period of my life. My time in the wilderness, and the faith that grew there when I saw the evidence of a benevolent maker surrounding me, lifted me out of despair.

Through my wanderings, I grew in my faith.

I began to be grateful for all of the good things in my life, no matter how small. I started to see hope for a better future, where before I had seen none.

I could share my photography and my stories for many reasons.

Maybe to bring attention to environmental issues, or I could use it for fundraising efforts to support local wildlife. I could share them simply to put beautiful images inside homes.

But instead, I hope that my sharing can touch souls.

That is so much bigger than me, a story or photo, and much bigger than a paycheck.

What excites you? What change, small or large, would you like to realize in the world? What authority do you have just by being alive that other people could benefit from?

For weeks, I explored my soul.

I thought about suffering. About loneliness. About the quiet despair people carry without speaking of it.

I thought about what people truly need when life collapses inward: meaning, encouragement, dignity, and hope.

I filled journal pages trying to understand what I was really chasing out in the mountains and what I wanted to bring back with me.

Eventually, everything kept narrowing toward the same three words:

faith, hope, and goodness.

A Durable Direction

Independent creatives rarely have someone standing over them demanding consistency. That freedom is wonderful, but unstable if nothing deeper is driving the work.

If making money is your only purpose, being a creative is the least stable way to do that. It’s certainly possible to thrive and become affluent as a self-employed creative, but there are going to be more downs than ups.

Your mission can take you through those hard times.

After a few weeks of work, the mission I landed on back in 2017 was:

To explore, capture, and share the beauty of God’s creation to inspire faith, hope, and goodness.

That’s why I’m a wilderness photographer. If there is a time when I can no longer do that, I can still pursue my mission in other ways.

This article is part of a series on the non-negotiables of self-directed creative work:

• Embrace Discomfort
• Keep Agreements With Yourself
• Build a Morning Routine
• Design Your Day Around Exploration and Deep Work
• Stay Mission Driven

Start Here:

[embed]How to Work Without a Boss Five non-negotiables for independent creatives building disciplined, meaningful workmedium.com

• Click on “Follow” and “Subscribe” if you want to know each time I publish a new article.
• My first book is Gratitude: A Wilderness Journal to Heal Your Soul
• I sell my images at creationimagesphotography.com.
• www.iamverifiedhuman.com