I heard something on the Vegan Theology podcast recently that stopped me mid-listen.
They were talking about facial recognition. You know how your phone learns your face over time. At first it needs good lighting, a still angle, everything just right. But the longer you use it, the better it knows you. It recognizes you when you change your hair. When you’re tired. As you get older. Even if you shave your head or break your nose, it still knows it’s you.
Not because you stayed the same, but because it learned you.
That picture stayed with me for days.
Because in a quiet way, that’s how my plant-based journey began. I wasn’t trying to be perfect. I wasn’t trying to impress anyone. I wanted to be known by God. And more than that, I wanted to recognize Him.
I was hungry to understand His character.
I didn’t come to plant-based eating with everything figured out. I came to it searching. Asking questions. Reading Scripture with fresh eyes, especially Genesis. In those first pages, the way God relates to His creation is personal. Attentive. Intentional. There’s care in how He creates. Space. Order. Provision. No violence. No fear. Just enough. Just harmony.
And something in me started paying attention.
Not overnight. Not all at once. But slowly, over time, like facial recognition learning a face.
The more time I spent in God’s Word, the more I noticed patterns in His character. Gentleness. Stewardship. Care for every living thing. A way of life built not on taking but on taking care.
I wasn’t trying to earn God’s approval. I was trying to know Him.
And as I did, my choices started to shift. What I ate. How I listened to my body. How I thought about the world around me. How I started to see myself as someone called to care for creation, not just use it.
Plant-based living didn’t feel like a rule I took on. It felt like things lining up. Like my life slowly coming into focus the more time I spent looking at His.
The more time you spend with someone, the better you know them. You start to notice what matters to them. What grieves them. What brings them joy. I think faith works the same way. Not through performance, but through attention.
Sometimes I think we struggle because we want instant clarity. Instant answers. Instant change. But growth takes time. Recognition takes repetition.
Just like your phone doesn’t learn your face in a day, spiritual growth doesn’t happen in a single moment. It happens as we show up. As we seek. As we listen. As we stay curious.
For me, the way I eat became one of the ways I stayed curious about God. One of the ways I kept asking: Who are You, really? And how are You asking me to live?
I’m still learning. Still being shaped.
But I trust that the longer I pay attention, the clearer He becomes. Not because I stayed the same, but because I stayed present.
And maybe that’s the invitation for all of us.
To seek God’s face long enough that we begin to recognize His character. And to let our lives, slowly and faithfully, reflect what we see.
