I currently have a Primary Objective in life: Get a job as an aircraft mechanic in Cascadia. Followed shortly by a house. My stated backup plan for the last four years has been, if missions didn't work out, to get a house and a dog and spend my weekends in the hills.
There are two Secondary Objectives, either of which may work out (but not both together). 1. Attempt to work with MAF again, because certain MAF staffers occasionally tell me to keep trying, as they want me working with them, regardless of HQ. 2, attempt to work with OCMC, although I wouldn't be fixing airplanes with them, as they don't have any. Both of those groups will want to see that I'm settled somewhere, regularly attending church, and have managed to be healthy. So both secondary objectives mesh well with the primary objective.
Another Primary Objective is to find a wife. Because I have no memory of a time where I haven't wanted to find a nice girl and start a family. I wanted that when I was 5, and I want that now that I'm 30. Of course, one does not simply walk into Mordor and pick up a girl to match that ring, so I've taken to slowly and carefully deliberating over each and every Christian girl I meet that I'm even remotely interested in. I won't even ask a girl out for coffee if I'm not 100% sure of what I'm doing, and more importantly, WHY. The most manipulate, petty, and critical women I've ever met have been Christians, so I'm very, very careful with who I get involved with.
Getting married might delay my 18-30 month timeframe for going back into missions work, and that's fine, but I will absolutely not put that goal in jeopardy for a woman. I know this because I can point to specific women that I haven't tried to get to know simply because they weren't interested in missions. I've had four girlfriends in 17 years, I'm not a man who takes the search for a wife to mean "I'll try any girl on for size, and whoever fits, fits." No, I'm looking for something fairly specific, and it has nothing to do with body type, hair color, or how pretty she is when she smiles.
ANYONE who's known me for a few years can tell you that no matter how depressed I got, I kept slogging towards my internship. While I was at MAF, I didn't take a single day off, no matter how depressed I was, during that entire debacle. And no matter how bad my day gets, and every day starts by waking up feeling lonely and wishing I had a family, I have NEVER gone out and tried to pick up a girl to drown my sorrows in. Nor have I ever had a single drop of alcohol, a single joint, or a single cigarette.
I have yet to back down from the challenges I've faced in my adult life. I've been unemployed for long periods of time. I've gotten sick multiple times and been unable to function. I've been homeless. I haven't won all of them, far from it, but every time I get knocked down, I get right back up. And I do it without drinking myself stupid, without the comfort of a wife or girlfriend, without being surrounded people who share my objectives, and without compromising those objectives.
There are two Secondary Objectives, either of which may work out (but not both together). 1. Attempt to work with MAF again, because certain MAF staffers occasionally tell me to keep trying, as they want me working with them, regardless of HQ. 2, attempt to work with OCMC, although I wouldn't be fixing airplanes with them, as they don't have any. Both of those groups will want to see that I'm settled somewhere, regularly attending church, and have managed to be healthy. So both secondary objectives mesh well with the primary objective.
Another Primary Objective is to find a wife. Because I have no memory of a time where I haven't wanted to find a nice girl and start a family. I wanted that when I was 5, and I want that now that I'm 30. Of course, one does not simply walk into Mordor and pick up a girl to match that ring, so I've taken to slowly and carefully deliberating over each and every Christian girl I meet that I'm even remotely interested in. I won't even ask a girl out for coffee if I'm not 100% sure of what I'm doing, and more importantly, WHY. The most manipulate, petty, and critical women I've ever met have been Christians, so I'm very, very careful with who I get involved with.
Getting married might delay my 18-30 month timeframe for going back into missions work, and that's fine, but I will absolutely not put that goal in jeopardy for a woman. I know this because I can point to specific women that I haven't tried to get to know simply because they weren't interested in missions. I've had four girlfriends in 17 years, I'm not a man who takes the search for a wife to mean "I'll try any girl on for size, and whoever fits, fits." No, I'm looking for something fairly specific, and it has nothing to do with body type, hair color, or how pretty she is when she smiles.
ANYONE who's known me for a few years can tell you that no matter how depressed I got, I kept slogging towards my internship. While I was at MAF, I didn't take a single day off, no matter how depressed I was, during that entire debacle. And no matter how bad my day gets, and every day starts by waking up feeling lonely and wishing I had a family, I have NEVER gone out and tried to pick up a girl to drown my sorrows in. Nor have I ever had a single drop of alcohol, a single joint, or a single cigarette.
I have yet to back down from the challenges I've faced in my adult life. I've been unemployed for long periods of time. I've gotten sick multiple times and been unable to function. I've been homeless. I haven't won all of them, far from it, but every time I get knocked down, I get right back up. And I do it without drinking myself stupid, without the comfort of a wife or girlfriend, without being surrounded people who share my objectives, and without compromising those objectives.
This post is for all the people who tell someone how they should live before they ask how they're doing.
This is for the people who got married right out of college and had several kids, but are experts on being single, celibate, and 30.
This is for the people who drink, smoke, and fuck their pain away, but are experts on being a bipolar man living a Straight Edge lifestyle.
This is for the people who gave up on their dreams, but are experts on being absolutely uncompromising.
This is for the people who have never lived alone, but are experts on being a nomad who's lived in seven cities in four years.
This is for the people who have never spent three years training for something only to have it end in disaster, and then asked for another chance to do it again.
This is for the people who've never stared down the barrel of a gun and called the person holding it "Sir", but are experts on how to be polite in a tense situation.
This is for the people who've never sold their personal possessions to pay the bills while they're overseas doing missions work, but are experts on who and isn't qualified to serve at all.
This is for people who've never dropped everything and taken multiple days off work to help a friend out, but are experts on who is and isn't loving.
This is for people who've never sacrificed their entire way of life on the altar of Faith, and yet are experts on what Faith is.
This is for all the people who know us better than we know ourselves. The armchair generals of life, the people who are better than the rest of us, and are always willing to vomit out their opinion on us whenever we make the mistake of asking them for advice.
Enjoy.
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