I met Margaret J. Cotton at the HopeWords writer’s conference earlier this year. She told me about the new book she was working on which piqued my interest immediately. You can read more about that below and more about this inspiring woman who is still being called to new things as she enters the fourth quarter-century of life.
Tell us a bit about yourself.
I was raised on the beach and in the church at the Jersey Shore. Barefoot walks with the neighborhood gang to a lake, the ocean, or glimmer-glass coves filled our adventurous mornings of summer, which also seemed to stretch out longer back then. In the afternoons I achieved “loner” status with unaccompanied walks to the library each week, lugging the return stack of books one way and the newly selected Victoria Holt, Scott Fitzgerald, Dreiser books home. I loved reading my grandmother’s copy of The Robe. I have always been a reader and writer, but rapid reading skills contributed to my poor spelling, as I read by configuration of phrases naturally. By seventh grade my love for writing was hidden by my shame of awkward spelling errors. God heard my prayers with spell check and easy revisions with the delete action of computers.
As early as fifth grade, I daydreamed how I could create a better lesson plan than my teachers, who stood in front of thirty-four students each day. Girls just were not encouraged to think beyond teaching, nursing, airline stewardess, or secretarial careers. Although our Episcopal Church spoke of a calling regularly, I resisted the nuns’ many invitations to answer mine within their teaching ministry. I knew that I had a calling to be a teacher. I felt a strong desire to encourage all students, including poor spellers like me. I thought of classrooms filled with color and fun and laughter and joy and days without fear of discovery and judgment. I headed to Kent State University in Ohio, graduating in 1971.
I enjoyed a teaching career of thirty years, and with some overlapping, twenty years as a professional photographer. Abandoning any thought of retirement, I wrote two books, the second waiting for a release date this fall. David and I have enjoyed supporting each other’s callings for all fifty-six years of our marriage, two great children and the lively fun of their families. I am privileged with opportunity and love, and I am grateful.
How do you think about calling (or vocation) generally?
I understand a call to be a comprehensive life commitment to follow Jesus’ teachings and behavior. Therefore, it is not what I am doing, but how I am doing it – accepting an invitation from God, who has set the course and the goals and, remarkably, wants my collaboration. My grandmother taught me to pray continuously by sharing and talking with God throughout the day. I intentionally do so - enjoying the swooping cardinal to feeling lost how to respond to my third-grade student who just told me she is being raped. My grandmother was right; God is always nearby. Listening is a huge part of a calling. More recently processing my husband’s and my seeing a UFO floating above the homes in my neighborhood and navigating polar-opposite political views of family members. These realities require asking God to reset my heart to accept all that is truly beyond my understanding, and then to listen, not to the noise, but to his peace.
Often what I might have thought to be a setback, I now understand as a necessary catalyst for change and growth and my increased awareness of Christ’s presence. The mysteries of a curious, engaged life are many, and only through the light of his love am I able to sense my contribution to his kingdom. I see that contribution as the call for all Christians.
How do you think about calling in your own life? Have any of those callings changed, ended, or otherwise shifted?
For the thirty years I taught third grade through high school, I never doubted I was in ministry. I did have doubts when I began having opportunities to be a professional wedding and portrait photographer. I really prayed about leaving a career to which I was certainly called for something that didn't seem as important. God, in a super fun way, challenged that belief.
My husband gave me a digital camera and a week at a professional photography school in Maine. Somewhat annoyed at a gift with a substantial learning curve, I was in my room, asking for God to prepare my husband that I was not going to get into the packed car and drive seven hours north. Instead, the phone rang, and an acquaintance who knew nothing of his gift asked me to be the photographer for her daughter’s wedding. “Why would you ever ask me?” I thought. And I clearly heard the message, "Be ready." So, I went, and that is what I began to do.
My husband met me in Maine and was driving our spiffy white convertible into Bar Harbor. I had my eyes closed, prayerfully asking why I was even considering dedicating hours to photography. David announced we were lost. Opening my eyes, I saw in front of the dark clouds of an approaching storm, a five-masted schooner sailing into a puddle of light with white doves flying about (okay, they may have been seagulls) with a full rainbow in the background. Jumping over the door - literally, David tossed me a requested battery, I caught it with one hand, pushed it into the camera, and I took the photo! I instantly knew the answer to my prayer was. “Be ready, and I will take care of the circumstances.” He did for over 250 weddings.
My calling was the same as teaching: to encourage, provide peace, invite joy to replace fear. I have felt a call with such dramatic events, and I have been certain of it in quiet conversations over coffee and with friends at their fathers’ passing.
The boldest callings in my life have had the most difficult challenges. Some people think when everything goes smoothly, God is in it. I believe that also. I am also certain God is in it when it doesn't go smoothly, especially when it doesn’t go smoothly. God is with us in that too. And sometimes I haven't had a clear answer. So, you figure it out, work it out. pray it out. and be ready, expecting him to take care of the circumstances. Sometimes what looks like a false start only provides the piece that you didn’t know you were missing to be ready for the real thing. With prayer, even the wrong thing will lead to the right thing.
What are some primary callings you’ve followed over the course of your life?
Marriage. I was very young, and I was not sure I was ready to marry. I didn’t doubt who I wanted and should marry. However, the full sense of God told me, “This is for real, don’t treat it as a game.” I finished at the university, and five years later, we became parents.
Motherhood is a calling because the importance is clear and the perfection impossible. Despite my inexperience, Allison and Daniel were busy blessings. Our family was settled back in New Jersey, with super schools, great jobs, a Jesus-filled church, fun friends, and a lovely home. Then an unexplainable discontentment tested us. As we resolved those issues with counseling and prayer, David announced his overwhelming call to the ordained ministry. We quit our jobs, sold a third of what we owned, gave away a third, and packed a third, sold our house, and moved to Central Kentucky, without jobs, for him to attend Asbury Seminary. We got the kids our first dog. Sometimes our blessings are exhausting and overwhelming. Through two serious health crises for David and me, the presence of Jesus and the love of our children and community prevailed. Amazingly, unexpected opportunities were offered, and those three years became foundations of faith, providing many happy memories for all of us.
What difficulties have you experienced in finding or fulfilling a calling in your life?
To model confidence in uncertainty. To model forgiveness. To feel bold when I am fearful. To use faith, self-reflection, and humor to ward off despair, and to accept we cannot do that for each other. The most difficult experience is honoring the callings of family members by accommodating the process of each for our four, now thirteen lives.
How has a particular calling surprised you?
I am particularly surprised that I have written two books whose central theme is responding to a call. I recognize the fun fact that writing them also feels like a calling - an invitation to collaborate and encourage.
The first is Raised! which I published in 2018. It’s the true story of Charlie and Florentina Mada whose toddler son, following a tragic accident, was declared clinically dead, so the hospital where he was taken did no medical interventions. The medical staff allowed the parents to remain at his bedside. Eight hours later, in front of witnesses, their toddler was returned instantaneously to perfect health. Told only God could do this, but without any knowledge of the Bible or faith, first Charlie and then Flori Mada were called to go forth and meet Jesus. Their authentic account is well-documented and remains a powerful example of Jesus’s pursuit of non-believers. The certainty of my calling to write their story was further confirmed. As I read them a chapter, they always asked, “How did you know that? It is true, but you know more than we tell you!” That gave me confidence I was writing with the intimacy of Jesus, and the Spirit was inspiring me to accomplish things beyond my perceived skill set.
With new confidence I was enough with Jesus, I returned to complete research begun when I had been awarded a grant through the National Endowment for the Humanities and then began to write a historical novel, The Radiance of Grace. This is the story of three true heroines—Anne Hutchinson. Mary Dyer, and Katherine Scott—who trusted God to follow a very dangerous calling. I delighted in discovering their voices and sharing the shocking story of faithful Christian women, whose friendship nurtured confidence to confront religious and civil injustice in Boston 1638. Their resolve to follow Christ did not falter, nor did they recant. They followed, and God provided the circumstances. Their families and friends wrote the inspirational documents that served as the oldest Colonial American roots for our First Amendment. Although American liberty to have a personal relationship with God is usually credited to the very men who persecuted them, God provided the circumstances within the course of a broken world.
Writing The Radiance of Grace was a calling with thousands of hours of research, prayer, composing, editing, but in comparison to what they did my sacrifice was minor. These stories have inspired me greatly. Through them, I am encouraged to be bolder than ever before when called by Jesus. The joy of the Lord is my strength.
I was over 65 when Raised! was published. I will be over 75 when The Radiance of Grace is published later this year. Imagine the patience and wisdom of God. It took me many seasons to be ready to fulfill the task he indeed called me to do long ago.
What roles have other people played in helping you discern and follow a calling?
I am grateful for my grandmother and through her, my many great-grandfathers and mothers of faith. My parents gave me a secure and loving home, and my children and grandchildren have blessed me in a thousand little ways and joys. I have been influenced by the faith of friends and by the lack of Christian friends, and the loss of faith of Christian friends, for then I have had to rely “soul-ly” on the fellowship of Jesus. I have been broken by the church and strengthened by followers of Jesus. I am influenced by other Christians’ unique and powerful witnesses. I am inspired by the blanket of love and forgiveness offered before I have asked. “While we were yet…” because we are all now “While we are yet.” My husband David’s constant support and relationship with Jesus delight and inspire me. When I married at nineteen, God was right - this is for real.
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Today’s newsletter (and the rest of this series of interviews on calling) is being sponsored by award-winning Common Good magazine. Common Good offers some of the best writing and analysis out there on art, culture, theology, and—you guessed it—vocation. They are a “a magazine for all of life” and honestly, that really does capture the spirit of the publication. Common Good is making a special offer to readers of The Priory (and you won’t believe this): a subscription to the magazine for ONE DOLLAR. Yes, you read that correctly. One buck. Just use this code: KSPCG
I already got mine!
What’s next:
Thanks to my readers who came here for the literary discussions for hanging in while we take a bit of a summer break. I will continue this series of interviews with folks on their own callings for another week then have a personal post from me offering some thoughts I’ve been reflecting on for a while.
September 2 we will pick up our reading with the English Neoclassical poet Alexander Pope! We will start with An Essay on Man and see what your pleasure is from there, readers. I’m curious if you are familiar with Pope already, and if so if you enjoy him or not. If you don’t know him, I can’t wait to see what you think! Oscar Wilde was not a fan. He famously quipped, “There are two ways of disliking poetry; one way is to dislike it, the other is to read Pope.”
For the more serious readers among us who like to use print books, I’d suggest either this very inexpensive Dover Thrift edition of Pope or this nicer, more complete Oxford World’s Classics edition. All the works we will cover are online, too. I just find it hard to read poetry (or any literature) that way. There are a few works I’d like to cover, but I will wait to hear from you, my readers, to learn if you are Team Pope or Team Wilde!
"Absolutely unmixed attention is prayer.” – Simone Weil1
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I’m honored and pleased to share the news that I have been named by Bethel Seminary the Karlson Scholar for the 2025-26 academic school year. The school and I will be collaborating on a few projects, including an online course by me next semester, some podcasts, and a visit to campus for talks and lectures. Stay tuned for details. More on this announcement and this honor here.
In more book release news (thanks for bearing with me during this brief season during which a book’s “success” is determined in those first few weeks of life2), I was really, really encouraged and affirmed by this video review of the book. It’s about 10 minutes long but the last part offers the kind of words every developing and growing writer dreams of hearing …
Simone Weil, Gravity and Grace, trans. By Emma Crawford and Mario von der Ruhr (London: Routledge, 2002), 117.
It’s true. Most books live or die based on the sales and reviews in the first few weeks. If you think you might buy or review this book, sooner really helps. This kind of support really matters and I so appreciate all who have offered it.
It is never too late for new friendships!
Thank you for this interview Ms. Prior! I read it earlier this morning then sat down to read my Bible. I was reading in Hebrews 3:1 about those who share a heavenly calling and thought I had to come back and re-read it. And so I did. (I'm a newer Christian so this was quite profound to me). Thank you again to the both of you!