Late Night Vocation Binge

October 10th, 2005 | Comments (5) | Trackbacks (0) |

I had been trying to fall asleep for nearly fourty minutes when my room phone rang. I decided that I wouldn’t answer it because if things had gone as planned, I would have already been asleep for a half hour and wouldn’t have heard the phone ring anyway. Shortly after, however, my cell phone rang. Because it was lying right next to my bed, I looked at the caller ID and it said “Tom.” I answered.

Tom explained to me that he, too, had been trying to sleep but found himself unable to enter a state of semi-consciousness because he had just read the first chapter of Finding the Open Road. I grabbed a packet of instant apple cider and made my way down to his room.

He told me that I should read the first chapter too, so I did. It was very inspirational, insofar as these people had done the same thing that Tom and I have been talking about nonstop. It turns out that these three guys who had done this a while ago have actually set up programs on college campuses nationwide so that students all over the nation can embark on road trips to find vocation. They even have grants available. Don’t worry, we applied.

Tom always says that true moments of creativity and inspiration are always spontaneous. You cannot plan for them. Last night was spontaneous. From 12:45 - 4:00am we worked on the trip. We emailed professors on campus. We emailed people about scholarship money. Most importanly, though, we came up with lists of people we really want to meet on this trip.

I sent out probably fifteen emails last night between the hours of 1 and 4am. A typical email presented our trip and asked if the person would be available for interview in January. I contacted the following people last night:

I found two events that would be great to add to the itinerary if possible. Politics and Spirituality: Seeking a Public Integrity is a conference taking place in Washington, D.C. January 14-16 that features Jim Wallis (Soujourners, God’s Politics), Anne Lamott, and Richard Rohr. Eugene Peterson, author of The Message and Christ Plays in Ten Thousand Places, will be speaking at Calvin College in Michigan on January 24.

Another idea that I had, inspired in part by my good friend Mike, is to take 30-60 copies of the Gospel of John to give to various people during the month. That’s between one and two per day. This does two things, (1) it is an opportunity to spread the Gospel and (2) it “forces” me to initiate conversation with people I might not normally approach. I also decided that I want to visit some “out-of-the-box” grassroots Christian ministries. The search is still on for some of these.

Update: Companies/media that have been contacted thus far (will be updated as more are contacted):

Ask not what you can do in your life. Ask what your life can do in you.