I’ve been getting some pretty good mileage off of Spencer’s “get out there” message. Last month I encouraged us all to “get out there” in our communities and make a difference. I had no idea that the message would hit so close to home for me, and that I would be reminded that my idea of community was too small in scope. Let me explain.
Three weeks ago, my wife decided to join a group from our church to go to Cambodia and do service work for an orphanage in desperate need of some facilities improvements. This type of humanitarian effort is something she has wanted to do for some time, and also embodies how big Mary’s heart is. She left on Father’s Day and will be there for two weeks.
Talk about getting out there! She is reaching out to her community, which in her eyes is the whole world. When I consider the word “community” I think Folsom, but Mary is a much worldlier person. We recently had a discussion about creating a family mission statement, and one of the first things she wanted was the goal of raising “responsible citizens of the world.”
“Getting out there” in our communities has a much bigger meaning to me now. We all should strive to be responsible citizens of the world. That may mean physically getting out there like Mary, or making concerted efforts to responsibly consume our world’s limited resources, or simply being aware of world issues rather than ignorantly burying our heads in the sand. Get out there, and become a responsible citizen of our world.
Matt Sundermier's Memos on Real Estate & on Life 