Dog's bark,
Midnight lark,
Construction's churn,
Copter's turn:
Noise of DC.
Who knew that these trivial sounds would be the overture to my dream job. "Do what you love" - so everyone says, although I haven't met very many people who can honestly say they are working their dream job right now. Except for my dad. I've always been jealous of my dad, because he graduated college knowing exactly what he loved to do and immediately got a job doing it.
Growing up, I never knew what I wanted to be. Nor did I in high school. I thought maybe I would know once I got to college, but graduation came and went leaving me still wondering "What do I want to be when I grow up?" Then, I decided. I decided that I couldn't find that one job doing what I love in my beloved Tennessee. That one thing that you literally look forward to every day - the thing you feel alive when you do it. So, jobless, and without any prospects, I moved my new, small family up to our nation's capitol. And now, dear reader, I am twelve hours away from my first "job" in DC.
No, it isn't paid. No, it isn't glamorous. But one month into the job search, I have decided to test my mettle. If you truly love doing something, you will love it regardless what you are being paid, right? Is that true of your job? Would you love doing it even if the money wasn't coming in?
I'm thinking a lot now that I'm here. More than I have in years, and the ironic thing is that I'm thinking so much that it has become more difficult to write. I find release and relaxation in hand-written letters occasionally, but that's about it.
Capitol Hill Baptist Church has been so good to us. It has been so long since I genuinely felt happy - an overwhelming joy - to be a Christian, but I feel it here. I am constantly thinking about things I never thought about before, and I enjoy praying for people I just barely met. Change is hard, faith is harder, but oh, dear friend, they are so worth the struggle.
I write to you on the cusp of uncertainty; I am unable to see around the bend of the future, but I am so glad it is that way. I trust my God more than I have before, I love my wife increasingly more every day, and I love my country. I am in a good place...and I'm not sure I've told you that enough in our few years together.
I'm praying for you right now - I hope that God draws you to him, to the work you are called to (because all work is valuable and precious to Him - if you're a furniture mover, a Hill staffer, a lawyer, or an insurance salesman), and to a love for where you are in life.
I'm sure I'll have plenty to write to you about soon - after all, how long can the philosopher in me hold out working somewhere as momentous as Capitol Hill?
We shall see.
