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Anyone can Serve

April 22, 2014

Confession: For the longest time, I thought I disliked serving people.

The reality was that I love serving people, but hate being imposed upon.

I recently had the pleasure of doing outreach with my church in an assisted living home. After some songs, Bible verses, and a short message, we chatted with the people who lived there. One of them, an obese diabetic in a wheelchair, mentioned that she did Mass in a room down the hall every 2nd Sunday, and said it would be great if we could come.

Years of guilt-tripping has taught me to recognize an imposition so I can escape it before I am asked. So that’s what I did. I was one of the first to leave, and drove out of there a bit faster than I should have.

Imagine her surprise next week when she saw me there!

So I helped with communion, handing out the wine and the bread. Most of the attendees could hardly move, and needed help just getting around.

And the woman who led mass? She has no legs.

I don’t mean she can’t use her legs – below the middle of her thighs are thick, round stumps – then nothing but air.

So this woman cannot move around. She’s stuck in an assisted living home. She’s old and at least 300 lbs – not winning any beauty contests there. Plus, she has no legs.

Despite that, she had one of the most cheerful spirits out of anyone I had ever met.

Possibly it’s because she knows that no matter where she is in life, she can always do something that makes a difference.

If she can, so can you.

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I want to change my life – I don’t want life to change me

March 26, 2014

It seems that people who have completely given up on achieving their goals – who’ve thrown in the towel when it comes to making plans – those people have the greatest faith. Or the worst.

I’ve always been the type of person who doesn’t really care about survival. Getting to the next month in the same situation I was in before is a real turn off. As long as the status quo sucks, why would I care about keeping things the way they are?

What do I care about? Thrival.

Don’t know if that’s even a word, but you can probably tell what it means.

It’s “survival +1 or more”.

I cared more about getting to Austin and living here than anything in the world. Career-wise, I have been let down more than Tyrion fans who frantically flip through Feast for Crows for another chapter about their favorite japing imp.

That was some weak sauce, George RR Martin. No Daenarys, No Tyrion, and only 2 chapters about Arya? I’m tempted to just skip this book.

What about the people who set goals and actually achieve them? Are they just lucky, or is it because their faith is simply better than mine.

Either way, I may have to move out of Texas to continue pursuing a career in writing. There’s another job opportunity that I’m looking at, and if things go well there, it may only take me – 5 years – before I can move back to the land I love. The job is not a writing job, but it will allow me to pour an extra 20 hours per week into making the best damn stories possible.

The exception is if something different happens in the next 2.5-7 weeks – something that hasn’t happened in the last 120 weeks or so. If I knew what to do differently, I’d do it.

Not trying to complain. I’ll do well no matter where I go, but I just don’t want to go anywhere else.

Have you succeeded at the goals you care about the most? If you’re a Christian, how did you keep the faith when you were down?

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