Baton Rouge

Leaving for the Gulf Coast from 10/9-10/24.

For a while, as I waited and waited and waited for word from the ARC, I thought, "perhaps God was wondering if I was willing to sacrifice some things in my life, and he wants to see how I will react to not going after having done such." Then I worked to come to grips with that. As time passed, I was growing increasingly worried about my joblessness, and as the weeks passed with no call, I thought "if I don't go this week, I'm just going to go ahead and hunt for a job in earnest." That is what I did.

After a few interviews (and no call-backs yet) I finally got a call from the ARC. I had to think for a moment, but then decided rather quickly to go for it.

I thought that maybe I don't have to go do some great and grand thing to be charitable. I can do that for the people within my own sphere, and on a regular basis and perhaps with a greater impact, as there is reciprocating emotional investiture. I don't need to go galavanting off somewhere to be useful to my fellow man. Maybe I could be a more genuine brother, friend, son, etc. Maybe I could live up to my ideals and spread charity to those with whom I am closest. Or, yeah, sure, I could go off a thousand miles, tell everybody about it, and be thought of as a good guy.

Well, I would rather just do what I can and be square with my interpretation of God. I would rather have his praise than my fellow human peers.

My friend Katie organized just last night a small group of us to go shopping off of a list given her by the SLC downtown youth homeless shelter. We got socks, canned food, notepads, hats, gloves, treats, batteries...quite a bit of stuff for relatively cheap. We returned back to the shelter and heard one of the workers say "ooh, socks!" My friends were commenting on how it made them feel to hear her say that about something to which they had contributed.

I decided to be a better person to those around me, and then got word that I need to be ready to leave for Baton Rouge within 24-36 hours. Like Peter Griffin off "Family Guy" when he died prematurely. Death told him that even though he was early and that he'd be going back, he wouldn't be allowed to return to his body until he received an epiphany about his life. Well, I got my epiphany, I hope to take it seriously. I can do macro-service or micro-service (hopefully both), but I will not overlook those near to me by going for something larger.

I'll let you know how it goes down South.