There are certain people that I think God has put into my life in order to embody certain ideas for me. Much like we know God because he came to earth as a man, I feel like I understand these ideas more deeply because I have known these men. For instance, when I worked as a Program Coordinator at a camp, I wanted to be the best leader for my team and for my program as I could. My mental "target" for this was a camp director I worked for for several summers before: Ed. Ed claimed that to be a leader, you didn't have to know how to actually do any of the things your team did, you just needed to gather those people who did know how to do those things around you and enable them to do so. There was something about him that made me excited about coming to camp to work my butt off. I always hoped to have that effect on my staff.
I started thinking about this because my wife and I have recently arrived in Romania to stay for a couple weeks. (Side note, if your keeping track, I missed a few days due to traveling and such. Trust me, while its debatable how valuable any of this is, anything I would have written during that time of endless airports, vans and restaurants would definitely be a waste of your time). As we were talking as a group this morning about what we would be doing today, we explained to Charlie that one of the reasons we had come was to be an encouragement to him and his wife. Charlie is the Romanian side of the organization we came with, Romania Building the Next Generation. I loved working with Charlie at a camp here last year and was glad to see him this year. I suddenly realized as we talked that Charlie's face was what came to mind when I thought of the word "humility". This is a man who is about to become the number two man in the organization, who could probably be the only reason we're able to do anything here at all and who leads a team of people from all over Romania to minister to the local children and teach them about God. He has every reason to be proud of himself--we certainly are--and could easily flaunt his position. And yet he considers himself to be nothing. Not in that self-degrading hide-my-pride-with-humility way that most of us trying to be humble end up putting on, but in a quiet, caring, servant-like manner. There is nobody I would rather be working with in Romania than Charlie.
I makes me wonder what kind of effect I'm having on the people around me. What my "legacy", to use my former camp's lingo, will be. The word doesn't have to be a positive one. The word "obnoxious" brings a face to mind, as does the words "two-faced". But I hope that my word is a good one, that I've been an encouragement to someone.
Maybe, since I've spent almost an hour now on my "15 minutes of blogging" (as I usually do), I should be remembered as "long-winded".
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