Into the Abyss

Feels like I'm running a small campaign, with printed and handwritten notes, profiles of some important people and coffee cups spread over my office table. Except that I don't have a campaign team. I'm covering domestic politics for today and tomorrow, followed by foreign policy over the weekend, and then personal questions next week. I've worked out a series of possible questions and answers, counter-questions and counter-answers, policies and their pros and cons. I'm really bad in interviews but the Frost/Nixon movie taught me the value of hard work and preparation. I'm taking it quite seriously, because I want to push myself to see how far I can go in competing with the best. I want to see if I can translate TA confidence in handling students' questions into professional confidence in handling the Perm Sec's questions. More importantly, I feel a strong urge to pray. Not so much for the interview, but perhaps to dust off cobwebs and entanglements from my mind, and focus on things that are true, honorable, just, pure, lovely, commendable and excellent (Phil 4). Secretly, I wish that God will close this door; to stir up deeper awakenings to pursue less travelled paths. I guess I have different dreams, and they don't always gel together. Some dreams require money. Some dreams require guts. Some dreams require patience. And some dreams require a foreign land. But "many are the plans in the mind of a man, but it is the purpose of the Lord that will stand" (Proverbs 19:21). God's Purpose, at some levels, can be a mind-boggling concept. Maybe it is time to think less, and pray more.