The People You Find in Warehouses

I have had my share of menial jobs while in college:  janitor, McDonalds….My latest stint of menial labor helping do inventory for Colonial Williamsburg during which I endlessly counted and recounted wing-dings, jib-jabs, and knick-knacks.  I always take a moment, or several, to appreciate the seeming irony of a William & Mary student making fries for hours on end or cleaning up trash.  Then there are my share of existential moments during which I consider how the entire cause-and-effect trajectory of my life somehow led up to this moment in which I am cleaning urine splatters off of a McToilet.

While working these various menial jobs, I also can’t help but consider the people working along side of me.  I usually consider that I am just passing through and that I have a bright beaming future ahead of me, but for these co-workers, this is their career—THIS is their future.  And I usually consider why this is the case: I worked hard in school, they did not work as hard, I had an aptitude for intellectual rigors, they did not, etc.

Not very humble, I know.  And I realize this, and I am aware of these thoughts, but I can’t un-think them.  That would be like trying to un-ring a bell or not thinking of a boat after someone said, “don’t think about a boat.”  As is my nature, I do my utmost to be kind and respectful and humble.  But I can’t seem to un-feel the feeling that in some way, I am higher than these people.

I recently worked in a warehouse doing inventory along side an older man, in his late 50’s I suspect, gray haired, thick glasses, wearing a drab-gray jacket, and always stuttering when trying to speak.  And off my preconceptions went again…

Only to discover days later that this man is actually an excellent internal medicine doctor who grew tired of practicing medicine and enjoys the simplicity of working in a warehouse during his elder years.  Apparently I wasn’t smarter or more informed or “higher” than this man at all.  This man could blow me out of the water.

So much for our perceptions.  Jesus wasn’t what 1^st Century people were expecting either.  I think that’s God’s way of doing things and showing us how astute our analyses and assessments really are.

And I don’t think we decide to be humble, as though we flip a light switch on or off.  No, we learn to be humble every time some unimpressive warehouse worker turns out to be a brilliant doctor, and turns our preconceptions upside down.

Why I Started This Blog

This fall, I will be joining the Capital Fellows Program through McLean Presbyterian Church in the Washington D.C. area.  This program is basically a Christian leadership development program for aspiring young professionals.  As someone who has long sought to be an attorney, before I start law school, this fellowship should be the perfect opportunity for me to learn what it means to be a servant in God’s kingdom as I pursue the field of law.

From September 2011 through May 2012, I will spend part of each week doing a professional internship in D.C, part of the week taking classes through Reformed Theological Seminary and attending periodic conferences and seminars, and part of the week contributing to the mission of service both inside and outside the vibrant McLean Presbyterian community.  I will gain a deeper insight of fellowship both as older Christian leaders mentor me and as I get the chance to pour my energy into the church youth.  I will even join another household for a year, as a family graciously and sacrificially welcomes me into their home to help mitigate my costs.  A friend of mine who was part of the program last year likened this whole experience to “spiritual boot camp.”

We are each entrusted to raise $6,300 for the program which will cover expenses including text books, conferences, seminary classes, etc.—everything not donated by the church (This is a flat budget program – McLean Presbyterian does not profit from it).  Of course, at this point in my life in which I already have educational debts and limited income, the costs of this fellowship plus the car I will need to commute each day amount to my first real substantial financial hurdle in life.

In an individualistic society like ours, so often we think that whether we succeed or fail is entirely a matter of our own effort, our own initiative, our own resources, our own strength.  While I have always been self-driven in my endeavors, I am humbled to realize that my loving community is what has truly made me who I am and lifted me up so that I might stand tall (and we all know that I need all the help I can get when it comes to standing tall!).

I will continue to need the loving support of my friends and family whether financially or in prayer, and perhaps in both.  Pray that as I pursue this endeavor, that I might grow in the spirit, know God ever more, and learn to be part of the mission of being a light in a dark world.  I’m learning to believe ever more in a God that can move mountains, and I hope that you will lift me up in your prayers, that the great Potter would continue to mold this lump of clay into what he has purposed for it to be.

If you can and would like to offer financial support via a one-time gift or a pledge of continued gifts during the year, know that all gifts are tax deductible and should be made out to McLean Presbyterian Church with “Fellows Program” on the memo line, including a cover note with your name and my name.  Gifts can be mailed to:

McLean Presbyterian Church

1020 Balls Hill Road

McLean, VA 22101

Attn: Fellows

This blog is for my friends and family who wish to join me in my journey.  I will blog several times each month leading up to the program start date, and starting in September I will blog two or three times a week sharing my thoughts and reflections on my Fellows experience, my faith, and my life.  And in the words of the twentieth psalm, “May God give you the desire of your heart and make all your plans succeed!”

Candy Land and LSATs

A month ago my mother challenged a four-year-old boy to a game of Candy Land.  Little Matthew pulled a big upset.  (My mother doesn’t take defeat very well.  While we brothers were growing up, she was ruthless at board games—no wonder we turned out the way we did.  She says she wanted us to be hungry)  My mother proceeded to hound Matthew for a rematch, and he, wanting to remain undefeated, resisted her challenges.  Finally after much “persuasion,” Matthew relented.  It is said that the rematch was an on-the-edge-of-your-seat nail-biter.  After an early-game controversy over who was entitled to go first and a late-game instant replay review, Matthew had won again.  I’m betting my mother’s response was similar to that of Darth Vader at the end of Star Wars, Episode III.

If there is a game entirely devoid of skill, strategy, or brains, it is Candy Land.  It is a game in which two people move a token around the game board by drawing a card each turn.  The card determines where you move.  In fact, once the cards are shuffled and it is decided who gets to go first, it is logically predetermined at the outset what the outcome will be.  Players really aren’t competing to win, they are merely finding out who won before the game started.  Post-game victory celebration would be like gloating over someone because you beat them in a coin toss.  Impressive!

So much is determined by a single card shuffle.

With just under a month to go until the formidable LSAT, I realize that this will have been the hardest test that I will have yet taken.  So many tricks and twists and brain benders.  I expect that I will be ready, but boy progress is frustratingly slow.

Your LSAT score basically figures as half the weight of your application for law school.  The other half of your application is your entire seventeen-year academic development and achievement from kindergarten through the end of college.  23 years of my life, and one day of my life.  A single test.  This will affect which school I get into, whether I get any merit scholarships, maybe who I will marry…

So much is determined by a single number.