Have you ever heard of the word “cull” before? Know what it means?

It’s a word that comes up during Photography Teams all the time. The students go out and take a ton of pictures. In this digital age, we always take more photos than we need, right? So we need to come back, download them, and cull through them.

Webster’s 1828 defines cull as, “To pick out; to separate one or more things from others; to select from many.” It’s pronounced with a short “u”. Cull. Not call. Not kill. Not Scott Kel-by. But cull.

And why do we photographers cull?

We cull our photos to separate the pleasing ones from the unwanted ones. We cull out the ones that are blurry. Underexposed. Overexposed. Not framed well. Duplicates. The misfits. We look for what’s nice. And we throw out (or forget about) the rest.

Do you feel culled out sometimes?

Do you feel like a misfit? Unwanted? Forgotten about? Are you always under the world’s pressure to measure up? Be the best? Stay ahead? Be cool? To keep from being culled out?

One day, Jesus will cull the whole world. He will separate the sheep from the goats (Matthew 25:32).

But until then, He doesn’t cull. He calls.

And not based on performance. Not how sharp we are. Not how good we look. “For ye see your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called: but God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty; and the base things of the world, and things which are despised, hath God chosen…” (I Corinthians 1:26-28a)

God sifts through the culled photos, looking for those who He can call.

“For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men, teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly righteously, and godly, in this present world; looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Savior Jesus Christ; who gave Himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar (set-apart) people, zealous of good works.” (Titus 2:11-14)