Party with Jesus (yes). Speak a second language (Spanish). Write a novel (in the works). Drop it like it’s hawt (done). Go to Thailand (eventually). Love where I live (done). Go to New Zealand (and Australia). And yes, as the loyal Chicagoan I am, I’d also like to see the Blackhawks win the Stanley Cup (I’ve met their mascot, and he told me they’d come away with a victory again this year :)).
When I stumbled upon the photograph above taken by my friend Luke in Portland and posted on Instagram tonight, I realized it has nothing and everything to do with me. The goals were written by random people in Portland, but I absolutely want to do everything written on that board. I am especially passionate about the traveling-abroad-suggestions (to Thailand and New Zealand) right now, as I recently returned from Honduras (loved it, want to go back), and one of my best friends just left for Uruguay to complete a 6-month internship with Claves, a faith-based nonprofit organization.
Several of my other friends are headed out to different corners of the world this summer as well, including places like Amsterdam, Peru, Uruguay, and more (with Wheaton College’s Human Needs and Global Resources (HNGR) program, a 6-month internship with a variety of organizations in places around the world), to be Christian missionaries in remote villages and organizations around the world.
“I’m pumped to get to know people, but I have to get through that process of initial awkwardness, and everything’s new, it’s uncomfortable,” my friend Lauren, who is headed to Montevideo to work with children and families at risk, said. “At the beginning it’s like ‘I’m living with strangers,’ you know, but I can’t wait to get to the point where this is like my family, or I, like, know these people.”
She may be traveling to South America, but when she told me what she wants to accomplish down there, I realized it’s something I could be doing here at home in Chicago every day of my life, no matter where I am:
“I look forward to helping people understand who they are as children of God instead of being defined by other people, or abuse they’ve been subjected to. My hope is that they would understand they are beloved, and they have so much worth and dignity and value because they are loved by the Creator. So their identity is not based on how they look or what they’ve done or what’s happened to them–they are so loved by God.”
So, I suppose, after listening to Lauren, it appears I could erase all of the lines on that board except one: I’d like to love people like Jesus does before I die.
Maybe that kind of love will be enough to help the Blackhawks attain another Stanley Cup victory. 🙂