Living at home for the summer, I am surrounded by friends who are well into their adult lives. Which, surprise!, I am too. My life story has taken a different path than that of many of my peers. (Side note: a great comic about life paths for recent grads.) Mostly I don't compare. Instead, I ask myself: Am I where God wants me to be? Am I listening to Him so as to prepare for the next step? Am I living fully according to His will here and now?
When I read this article on Busted Halo, I wanted to sit down with the writer (Seth) and have a heart to heart about a year of service. "I'm glad you learned to cry, but let's take a deeper look at your year. Let's start with a deeper look at your tears." One of the most valuable things I gained from my year (and I know this is true of other volunteers I know) was a deeper understanding of human dignity. I came in with a great theory of the intrinsic value of the human person. I came out valuing individual people in a way I hadn't known was possible. Of course, this outcome was not the only, or even most valuable, grace from the year, but it is one of the easiest to explain.
All these graces together mean that my year, as Seth worries about his, was not a waste. But more than that: no time spent with Christ is a waste. So Seth's time in the soup kitchen had intrinsic value, apart from his learning to cry. My time with the VSC had the same intrinsic value -- as did my time as YACM, as does my time at Franciscan. All these times are times of abiding deeply with Christ, which is, after all, our ultimate goal.
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