44 Days and Counting – Work

Despite the fact that there are 44 more days before we go to Africa, the temptation is to allow the trip to take control of our lives. Yet, every member of our team has work to do. Betty and Allison must attend to their jobs at SMU. Malcolm and Dan are on patrol as peace officers. Aaron is keeping his business moving forward. Robyn is attending to the last details pending before Betty’s new book is released next month — not to mention countless other projects as managing director of content development at OnMessage.

Me? I’m back at work. As usual, I’ve scheduled more work than I have days on my calendar. I’m behind on a publishing deadline and the stack of phone messages and emails I need to respond to keeps growing. I have a few final projects to grade.

But I keep being drawn to the adventure ahead. I think of details and I divert to cover some of them. I’ve made lists of things I need to do. I just wish I could find all of those lists.

Something about this upcoming trip to Rwanda and Kenya is making work more exciting. Perhaps it’s the way that the mission and the potential of our work in Africa seem to frame everything else. Priorities seem to be clearer. Connections with “what I do in real life” are evident. Getting up each morning seems a little easier.

[quote]Choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life. – Confucius[/quote]

Sure, we still must address the mundane. But a sense of mission promises to make work something wholly different.