If God had a wallet, your picture would be in it

After spending my two good young years at the UC School of Planning, here I am landing on a grass-root community organizing organization. I would say that other than the books I read, none of the skills I've learned from the Planning School is applied here at work. Unless, if I have to count the restless hours of working and reading books and writing papers and getting things done under pressure and chasing down professors to meet with us. I would say that I learn more outside the classroom as if bending an iron: persevere and being persistence.

I have done large scale planning with a county level government and that did not satisfy my soul. I crave for a more personal relationship with people that will allow me to get to know them personally.

I've learned that from Jerry McGuire. A movie where Tom Cruise was a athlete manager who realized that focusing on money instead of clients was wrong. He stood for what he believed, wrote a resolution only to be rejected and laughed at, left and got his own client to succeed. The smile of Cuba Gooding Jr in the field when he hit home run, Jerry's understanding of his family's needs, and what's important for his client, was his priority. Their relationship grew from more than a client and a manager, but they became friends.

What I didn't realize was that it was what Jesus was teaching all along. Jesus is always personal. Remember the Samarian woman on the well, or the thief beside him on the cross, or zakeous, every one of them was about SOMEONE. A person. A soul. A heart. He is also a leader who serve, washed the feet of his disciples, one by one. One-by-one also, preparing every character, honoring them to help them to be ready when the time comes for them to build his kingdom. The truth is Jerry McGuire must learned it from Jesus.

It is also one of the key why Jesus transformed countless lives. Because he touches us personally. That, I think, is what He wants from us, for us to know who we are, what our purpose is in life, is to know Him personally, as a creator, a savior, and a guidance-giver. He does not want us to trap ourselves under what we called religion, or denomination more than just the way we worship and build community. And above all, he wants us to love one another, regardless our level of understanding of salvation.

Learning as a community organizer, I work one on one with people to take active participation in their community. The community I work with is a low-income, African American community that is isolated among major interstate exits. They have been fighting to retain their neighborhood from being erased by the City who wanted to expand the industrial area. They have also worked together to reject the plan to erase some part of the neighborhood to build more highway exit. As time goes on, the community has evolved and the new residents sometimes are unaware with these history. To get them involved in the neighborhood activities that sometimes requires more than just time for their family is not easy. I always get into the idea of attracting their own interest. "What's in it for me," "Yes In My Back Yard (instead of Not In My Backyard)" are two keys to get people involved to improve the quality of life.

GODISNOWHERE (now read it again)

Somehow God has managed to put thoughts by thoughts in my mind about Cincinnati, the inner-city, hopelessness, and everything else that follows.

As I walk on the street passing homeless people asking for help, as I sit on the bus watching everyday's life of baby-mama, as I sit in the meeting listening to faithful prayers of ordinary people who trust God completely even to lead the meeting, as I clean the litter on the sidewalk that was left by God knows who, as I listen to the shouts on the street at midnight that woke me up, as I hear the gun fire right across the street, I kept asking God of what he wants me to do.

I know there is only one answer to a revival. It has to start in each individual heart. It has to start with God knocking on the door and rescue them for the things that they might not even realized were ruining their life, taking away their joy, and robbing the precious time they received from God.

I know this thoughts probably is one of the common phenomenon of "twenty-something" person in my stage of life where I began to ask -what can I do to make a difference-, but I know more that this is part of my calling to glorify God through whatever talents that I have. A new friend I met earlier this week reminded me about what encouraged her to start a new ministry in downtown Cincinnati. She mentioned Matthew 25, the parable of the talent. I don't want to be the servant who burried the talent because he was afraid of using the talent. Fear is another type of prison. I am sure God can use my life now and today and where I am.

I was one of the examples of the hopelessness, too. I was hopeless that something can change. I was hopeless that every single little things that we do will not change the situation. I was hopeless that the authorities won't ever _EVER_ get it right. I was hopeless that some people still refused to talk to each other (like an adult). I was hopeless that the long-timers will still view new people as threats, gentrifiers, while the rest would not get along.

But it all started with God. And he is God. Nothing is impossible for him. Then I started to see the lights: everywhere around me is each person working for God. I can mention a few among many: the City Cure and their ministries who belief in relationships with each individuals, to touch them by heart and help each person to find God in their life; or the Vineyard who follows Mother Theresa who believes that "simple things done with great love can change the world", what a faith! Then I found the Sisters of Charity, who probably approach God in a different way but has done major impacts in real people in real life with real problems.

Individual artists working to open their own galleries, independent architects help locals to renovate their new condos or houses around, community organizations working to employs locals to rehab their houses, writers write, bakeries open, stores stay, university lend their helping hands to the people who otherwise don't have access to design assistance, local centers open their classes for free, libraries with their continued effort to educate, I can't mention everything.

I began to see that revival is not impossible at all.

But sometimes, churches lost their most important task to reach out. Once, a neighbor of mine told stories where they planted trees on a residential street where they lived, where a church "of open door" was also located. But the church's door was never open, they didn't even get involved in tree planting. Fifteen years later, the church was just a building, empty without people, and another neighbor turned it into condos.

It's not the greatest story on how church should become an engine of revival, where God should shine and reach out through their members. Not to be burdened by programs and programs, but to be burdened by a weight of gratitude, of the grace of God, that in rejoice, are reaching out to the community. How else would they know about God if not from people who knew God?

Making a Living is Not the Same as Making a Life

To me, to work on the job that I love is crucial. It is THE most important thing. But, how do we get there?

A friend called me in the middle of the night, vented on how she doesn't like her job. She's a food scientist; her works involves creating formulas for food scents and taste substitutes. She experiments with bacterias, chemical, and all that good stuff I don't understand, but interesting to hear. But this is the first time I heard that she doesn't like her job. She wants to quit, but doesn't know what else to do.

I told her that some days in our jobs sometimes made us want to quit that day. It happens to me too; what I usually do is to revisit our motivation: why we do what we do, that would encourage us to love our job again.

The one thing to pursue what you love to do, and the other thing is to give up on what we have now. Life needs to be discovered all the time! Including now. I understand what my friend was saying that she hated the job because she felt like it doesn't make a difference. Let's stop there and we discuss that later. But, when I asked her if she had a chance to go back to college, what was it that she would it be? And she said, she would take the same thing, since she loves being in the lab, working with bacteria and discovering new formulas. Well, that's it, then. She found what she loved already.

Let's go back to her idea that the job doesn't make a difference. Of course it does; it helps create a better tasting food, the food would help feed people; her job is a piece of the puzzle of the complicated network of the food industry that exists because of demand: it provides to life.

But the other day I was reading about this book called "Finding the Road Map: Railroad Nation Series". It's a book contains stories of people who succeed in what they do. One of the sentences that I read, was a quote from Albert Einstein "Who you are is not determined by what you do." But, my thought came back to what I have heard, that Jesus loves us no matter what we do. That, the love of Jesus itself, could be, or should be, our main motivation to love what we do, or to discover what we love to do, and do that the best we could, for the Glory of God. But if finding our talents and our gifts and using it to enrich our lifes and others, is an act of worship too. Loving your job is a state of mind. Go, baby. Go!