Still, there is just a week left of school before the kids go home for the summer. Then, I get to paint, to finish off my SALT experience. Which will give me endless hours to process a year in Jordan.
Here is the part that might leave you, dear reader, disappointed. I could ramble on and on about my time here. The culture. The things I have learned. The stories. The falafel. The "life-changing" experience. I won't. Because I am interested in something else.
What have you been doing? I am in a different part of the world, away from you. There is value in what I am doing, and in this context, it is DEFINITELY an experience. But it isn't more valuable than what you are doing. And while it has revealed things about me based on the unfamiliar, uncomfortable, strange circumstances I am faced with daily, (SPOILER ALERT) it hasn't changed a whole lot about me. From my perspective, I think it has just allowed me to actually understand myself from a different angle. Refreshing. Not life changing.
So, as I was saying, what have you done in the past year? I hope you have been praying. I hope you have been focused on God. I hope you have felt a sense of calling in the things that you do. I hope you've loved and felt loved. I hope you have served faithfully. I hope you have done justice, loved kindness, and walked humbly with your God. I don't care how or where, because that is irrelevant. Jordan. Israel. Bolivia. America. Botswana. Indonesia. I hope you're doing the same thing I'm doing. Probably better than I'm doing it.
And if you think I am selling my experience short, too bad. If you think I am supposed to be changed, many apologies. If you think there are profound realizations that will come about as a result of the last year, you are entirely correct. But you have that too. A year in SALT doesn't give me a monopoly on God, on service, on change, or on growth and paradigm shifts.
The point: While I doubt I'll get much feedback here, if you want a simple, semi-focused, mildly humorous, probably sarcastic assessment of some of the things I have experienced through SALT, shoot me an email (brentalanstutz@gmail.com). Tell me about your past year. It has been just as important as mine. I'll do my best to be diligent in responding.
And lastly, here is a teaser. One thing I have learned in Jordan: Dune jumping in Wadi Rum is fantastic.
