Seth’s World View

I’ve had REM’s All the Way to Reno in my head all week. And just that line. I forget the rest…even though I have it in my music library. I’ll have to play it every day, just to balance out the force, not that I believe in it, it just sounds cool to say.

I look forward to a new experience, though traveling is always tiring. But I love to explore.

Changes are afoot. Don’t know what they’ll look like. Work is crazy good. I like work, but it remains work.

I finally got a sense of the things that stir my heart. I’ve been wondering for awhile, as I’d forgotten. There’s lots of things I find interesting, lots of things I like and appreciate, but not all boils effervescent excitement. I have realized, more than once, that the two most passionate years of my life were my first two years of college. There are multiple factors, but a key one is that I was involved in some form of outreach that took my outside of my comfort zone, outside my ability, outside myself, and into a world of people different from myself. It was draining. It was exhilarating.

So, urban plunges with reflection, they excite me. Intense community-building experiences, excite me. Service-learning excites me. Living in a community house focused on serving, excited me. Living in community excites me. And all these things, they give me something more than myself to envision and focus on. The Bible has a verse that says, without a vision, the people perish, meaning, literally, cast off restraint. And when I don’t have a passionate vision, it’s so much easier to sin and be mediocre, because my emotions aren’t alive with my heart on a path.

I like what I’m involved with now. And it’s not like there aren’t opportunities. I need to do something new, whether it’s part of my current commitments or anew. And the foundations are committed community and serving people outside my comfort zone. When I think that, I think Denver seems to be the place for that. I mean, Fort Collins, come on, it’s a paradise of sorts (and compared to many cities, it is). But there is a more beneath the surface that is anything but paradise. I’ve been disappointed for awhile in how much I’ve separated myself from the least of these. It’s so much easier to not bother. These are, of course, just words. Words. They require action to have any meaning.

I’m unsure how to proceed, what to do. Some of my friends back in Harrisburg, and others I’ve known about, have started community house programs focused on community and serving. I’ve half tempted to acquire a duplex somehow, and pull together a coed house of 6-8 people (keeping in mind FoCo’s stupid housing laws). Yes, I know the LightHouse exists. It’s different in many ways from what I’m thinking. Though I haven’t ruled anything out at this stage. I also have to contemplate how to work and be a part of Everyday Joe’s and serve and….. Such is my personality.

The challenge is to dive in but not dive in. I feel like I need to be a learner for awhile, but that I also need to get involved. I’ve had some good community in small group, has been wonderful. Time for more intensity. Don’t know what that means yet.