Catching Fish

When it comes to sharing Christ with others, I tend to be rather reserved.  I’m hesitant to bring Christ up in conversation, and I can never imagine what I should say.  I don’t feel prepared, I don’t have all the answers, and to be honest I’m not really worthy of the Gospel at all.  I can’t say I had a “And then everything changed” moment, but today at Ecclesia, the passage we covered today did give me a different perspective on things.

We’re going through the book of Luke at Ecclesia, and this week we covered Luke 5:1-11.  Ryan spoke specifically about a miracle performed (the catch of an incredible number of fish, enough to nearly sink 2 boats) and the response of the soon-to-be disciples. I won’t go over much of that at this point – you should be able to listen to the podcast at www.ecclesianewnan.org soon, assuming I didn’t screw up the recording.  What I want to talk about is something that occurred to me as we were reading the passage.  I do need to cover some of the background though.

Beginning Anew

Well, A lot has happened since my last post – which is pretty much what I said then.  In way of a brief update, I say this:  I retook the LSAT, and got accepted at UGA.  None of the other schools I applied to accepted me, though most did offer the dreaded waitlist again.   I passed on that this time   So I’ll be in Athens in the fall – which may well be the best choice, considering that Atlanta is said to be the hub of human trafficking for the United States.  What better place to be when that is your chosen fight than next door?

I’m keeping this update brief, so that I can post my fairly unrelated writing.  I may continue updating this site, but my goal is do have wordpress running on my own site, but its not up yet.  So until then, keep checking up on clayosophy.wordpress.com !

Where Things Stand Today

A lot has happened, and a lot has not happened since my last post.  Neither school used their waiting lists, or so I understood anyway, so I didn’t get in anywhere.  That was a bit of a discouragement, to say the least, but right now I plan to try again for next year. 

Ok… Now What?

Well, I’m still waiting for word from UGA and William and Mary, and I have no idea whether I will hear from them within the next 2 months or not.  I can’t just assume I’ll get in, so I have to make alternate plans, as I stated in an earlier post.  The problem is, it’s easy to say I’ll do something, but difficult to actually find what it is I should do – or anything relevant at all, as my results seem to be thus far.  If law school doesn’t work out this year, I would like to spend some time overseas.  At the least, in a different part of the country.  I guess I’m a restless person, because I feel like I’ve been in this job and everything long enough; it’s time to move on.  And having lived in the town I have for nearly 10 years, I am definitely feeling the urge to move on.  But where?  To what?  The question never leaves my mind, but I have yet to find an answer.

The Indefinite Wait

I apologize for the lack of updates; I really thought I had posted since i got the UGA notice.  So basically, here’s where things stand: I’m on waiting lists for both schools.  What this means is that I could hear as early as next week that I’ve been accepted… or I could hear nothing at all, up to august.  Yes, I could be accepted as late as August.  Neither one will give estimates or chances of acceptance throughout the process.  Personally, I find this to really be the most frustrating response I could have received.  I can’t make plans for school, because it’s far from definite.  I can’t make other definite plans because I have committed myself to this path.  If there’s a way for it to work, I will do it.  The problem is that for now, I’m stuck in Limbo.  I can’t look for other jobs, I have a hard time getting motivated about alternatives like some form of freelancing/self employment.  And since I will need to train my replacement in the case of law school working out (I can’t just tell my employer “I didn’t train my replacement, but I got in after all.  see ya!”), I’m not sure my current job will be available.  I’m honestly not sure I want it anymore.  It’s a great job if this is what you want to do, but its not what I want to do.  Freelancing would be more to allow me to do what I want (travel) than about loving what that job is too, unless I get very lucky.  So that’s where things are with Law schools.  Nowhere.

William & Mary

I applied to two law schools for the upcoming fall term, UGA and William & Mary, and I finally received word from William & Mary.  Actually, I was supposed to hear at the beginning of the month, but apparently my letter got lost, so when I emailed them they were able to email me the letter.  Basically, I was rejected, but I have the option of being on the waiting list, where my application would be reconsidered as slots open up due to accepted applicants having other plans.  I’m waiting for the response from UGA (They’re over a week late for their own estimated response date), and if it’s positive I won’t worry about W&M.

It’s pretty frustrating, waiting on a school that already takes an inordinate amount of time to get responses to applicants.  Their estimated response date was April 15, a full 11.5 weeks after the application was due.  Now we’re at the 12.5 week mark, getting close to 13.   I’m trying to arrange housing and possibly a part time job for school in the fall… but its impossible to make plans when I don’t even know for sure I’ll be accepted.  I’m certainly not putting down a deposit for an apartment or anything.  They’re delay on an already excessively long decision process just makes the whole process that much harder, that much more stressful.  But that’s ok, I’m done complaining.  As I said before, if law school doesn’t work out for this fall, its not the end of the world.  It’s just the stress of not knowing that’s getting to me.

The Greater Good

Over the last couple days, I have been reading Orson Scott Card’s Treason. Setting aside my fandom of nearly all of Card’s work, I ran across a portion of the story which made me wax a bit philosophical. At one point, a character has, without bringing in spoilers, acquired the ability to heal/cure. The only place he uses this ability is when he is living in a small rural community. Actual story aside, this made me think. If I, you, or whoever had such an ability, how should we use it? What responsibilities are inherent in such an ability?

My immediate though was to take the ability where it is needed most, can “do the most good.” As such, I was thinking of a large city, where the need was more… dense I suppose. Efficiency! I don’t know what gives me that attitude. Is it culture? Society? The needs of the greater outweigh the needs of the few. That seems to be the idea ultimately that shaped what was my initial reaction. How true is it though? What makes the needs of the many of more value than the needs of a small community? Do their needs matter less because they have less? I don’t think so. Which is not to say that there are not times to go to the needs of the many. I just don’t think it’s a given, an absolute, as was my initial reaction.

Think about it yourself. Which would you choose? And why? We can learn a lot about ourselves asking questions of ourselves.

The International Justice Mission

The International Justice Mission is an organization that seeks to bring justice to the millions world-wide that are abuse, exploited, and persecuted. All throughout the Bible God’s passion for justice is quite clear, and IJM is dedicated to doing all they can to bring it about. Based in Washington, DC, IJM performs their work with funds provided by grants and donations from governments, organizations, and people like you and me. They do not just seek to, for example, remove a young girl from a brothel, they also seek to change the system that makes the very crime possible, using that countries own laws and legal system to bring about that change. Some casework types that IJM focuses on include: Slavery, Sex Trafficking, Illegal Property Seizure, Illegal Detention, Police Brutality, and Sexual Violence.

All Roads Lead to Rome

I have been pretty well set in my plans for law school this fall. Honestly, I haven’t even considered a non-law option at this point, beyond knowing I’ll leave my job in any case, and head overseas. That’s it. And for the most part, at this point in time, that’s ok. I have a lot of time before the fall, and I should know for sure about school in the next few weeks. I was thinking about it a bit today, though. I realized that whether this path (school) works out this year or not, I know my destination, and I can just take a different route. My destination is the real world, where people die through negligence, abandonment, and hatred, where whole families have no money, no food, and no hope, where women and children are sold, often by parents or family, into a life of slavery and rape. I may not start out with law school in my path, though I feel pretty certain it’s there somewhere, but that just means I’ll be taking a different route.

Abandoned and Orphaned

    In my search for information regarding orphans ways to get personally involved, I ran across the blog of Paul Myhill, who is the president of World Orphans.  His blog really opened my eyes and motivated me in the path of seeking justice and shining a light on the plight of those who cannot voice it themselves.  It is very real, and sometimes rather graphic in reveal the kind of life that orphans worldwide have to look forward to, including sexual trafficking and exploitaitons, slavery, and organ harvesting.  Think orphanages will solve the problem?  Some of them are the ones performing the travesties.  I really suggest reading this blog, not so that you will necessarily want to get personally involved, which you might, but so that you at least have a more realistic world view.  Ignorance is no excuse for our actions, so let’s not be ignorant.  Abandoned-Orphaned is also the site that referred me to IJM, so that is another plus for the blog.