Better Than Oprah & Crab Cakes

My first job was painting miniature wooden ducks for a mail order duck of the month business. Seriously. I was fourteen and just sat around watching game shows and Oprah that summer with a paintbrush in hand.

Then there was Chick-fil-A. Because, well, I love Christian chicken and having Sundays off and Jennifer worked there and Jennifer somehow looked like a supermodel in navy blue slacks and a maroon visor. Also, I got all the chicken I wanted. And did I mention there was chicken?

In college I handed out samples of crab cakes, lasagna, chicken pot pies and whatnot to the shoppers of Sam’s Wholesale. The grandmothers I worked with “accidentally” cooked too much and gave me the leftovers. I don’t think I bought groceries once that year.

For the last decade I’ve been a soft rock star. (If you’re new here, I say this out of equal parts self-deprecation and self-loathing.) I get to travel around the world (aka Florida & North Carolina) singing about God, “working” for only 90 minutes, staying in hotels where someone else makes the bed, and meeting thousands of fascinating people.

I’ve had some great jobs with amazing perks. Then there’s leading Compassion Bloggers.

This job requires me to be organized – and that fits me about as well as an XXL. When recruiting bloggers for these trips I’m rejected again and again. I work with a brilliant group of internet marketers at Compassion who routinely, unintentionally, make me feel like a five year-old at the adult table. When I’m on these trips I miss my wife and my three kids deeply.

There’s a lot about this job – like any job – that’s difficult for me. But the perks? Well, I get to see children released from poverty. And Americans released from wealth.

Patricia-Jones-on-Camel-with-Hannah

And have-it-togetherness.

Kristen Welch on ferris wheel with Mckenna

And a God with borders.

Brad Ruggles with Compassion sponsored child

And the mountain-from-molehill cares of life.

MckDaddy and Miichelle

I get to witness God’s will on earth as it is in heaven. The miraculous. The hellos and the goodbyes of family made from strangers.

LV-And-Michael

The first world colliding with the third world, bringing release to both.

And that beats Oprah and free crab cakes any day. And rivals Christian chicken too.

I love this job.

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