what you want, baby I got it

I have been blessed to be surrounded by a group of service-minded people lately. They are always looking for opportunities to give their time and love and energy away. As I look at my life, I wonder if I am being called to some extreme service. For instance, am I called to a war drenched country or a place that has suffered severe damage as a result of a natural disaster? I don't know. Life doesn't follow straight lines and plans. But, I do know that I am where I'm supposed to be in this moment. My life is not an accident. Sometimes I think that I make too much of mission trips and service events and fail to see the opportunities being neglected right around me. I think visiting my parents and playing scrabble with my mom is service. I think being present while my roommate weeps is service. I think lingering over coffee to hear a friend's stories is service. Regardless of where I am or who I'm with, my gift is myself and the peace of Christ that I carry in me.

I write and think a good bit about the relationship between joy and sorrow. Julient Green writes, "When you think of the mystical experience of many saints, you may ask yourself whether joy and suffering aren't aspects of the same phenomenon on a very high level. An analogy, crazy for sure, comes to my mind: extreme cold burns. It seems nearly certain, no, it is certain, that we can only go to God through suffering and that this suffering becomes joy because it finally is the same thing." My journey to the Lord was not an easy one. However, once I arrived at the knowledge of Him, it was so profoundly beautiful because I was, after the pain, able to recognize true joy.