Reframing the Future: The Power and Purpose of Sabbatical

“I believe in living with the camera, and not using the camera.  Suddenly, if you are working a lot, it takes over and then you see meaning in everything.  You don’t have to push for it.  That’s what I mean by visual life.  Very rare.”

Dorothea Lange

I just finished a year long sabbatical.  I returned to the classroom at Columbia Theological Seminary this July and I realized how much I missed this place that I love.  I missed my colleagues and students more than words can say.   I return seeing the world differently after spending this past year working fulltime on my MFA in photography at the Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD).

The faculty and my student colleagues at SCAD pushed me to live in the visual world.  For one year I was immersed in a world that demanded that I see and experience the world like I had never done.  My eyes were opened and I now see my world, the classroom and my teaching vocation in a totally different light.  It was through the viewfinder that I saw the world and myself in a new light.

I return to the classroom as an artist who teaches.  Teaching is not what I do but rather the classroom becomes a darkroom where light enters and we see what emerges from the developing process.  I come back to CTS and I am approaching my teaching as an art and my students and I are the artists. SCAD helped me own my calling as an artist.  I was forced to look inside and ask hard question about the stories I was called to tell through still images, video and my blog.  This was hard work but work well worth it.

I had never had the privilege in all my years of higher education to be able to focus fulltime on my studies and not also have fulltime job responsibilities. My sabbatical allowed me to focus fulltime on my work at SCAD and as I result I was transformed.  I also saw what an advantage it is for students to be able to commit fulltime to their schoolwork and not have to worry about how they are going to eat.

I return to Columbia Theological Seminary sharing what I have learned at SCAD.  I return to teach Evangelism, Photography and Social Media.  I have an energetic class who has jumped right in and they doing great work.  My sabbatical served to help me reframe my future at CTS and my work as a socio-theologian who is also a visual storyteller.  SCAD help me see the world and myself in new ways and I am eternally grateful to my professors who pushed me in each and every class. I will take what they taught me and share it with my students. 

What about you?  Where are you going at this phase in your life?  What is that thing or experience that has the possibility of helping you reframe your future?  As hard as the work has been at SCAD, and the party isn’t over yet, it was worth every minute.  What challenge awaits you with the promise of transformation?