by Hayley Taylor & Wilson Whitaker

Location: Revolutionary Soup
Agenda: Celebrate our Two Week Anniversary of Togetherness

An auspicious beginning, to be sure. Yet this anniversary shadowed a different, though no less important, landmark in our year: we have now completed an entire five-day work week with our new employers.

While our soup was full of Revolutionary zeal, we discovered that many of our work lives bear little resemblance to the passionate longing many of us brought to the table only weeks ago: a hope to change the world, a longing to make a difference. Throughout our varied work experiences, one common thread emerged: making a difference is taking a different shape than what we once expected. Instead of idealistic activism, we begin to change the world each morning in front of a filing cabinet at 9 a.m. sharp.

But perhaps this is a chance to remember Who it is we are serving, in both the mundane and the adventureful — the ordinary and the breathtaking. Just perhaps this isn’t about the ideas we can generate or the policies we can revamp but about the people we can serve and the love that we can give. In fact, perhaps it’s not even about “we” or “me” but “Him” and “them.” Just perhaps.

Happy Anniversary.

Written by: Tripp Purks

Perhaps the most constant and stable thing in the life of a Fellow (other than certain exhaustion and deep conversation) is that fact that every Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday we will be at our jobs along with the rest of the working world. The job-experience element of the program is indeed one of the cornerstones in the Fellow’s foundation. The opportunity to be immersed in and contributing to the daily movement of an organization is extremely valuable to formation, and the part-time work hours certainly are a welcome relief to juggling the other aspects of the program. Though Fellows often work at entry level positions their presence is (hopefully) associated with hard work, pleasant dispositions, and a servant’s attitude, thus bringing an invaluable contribution to their respective companies.

As for me, I’ve found that my time at work has been quite an experience. Though it is certainly not always exciting, or incredibly inspiring, I usually am able to see the value of the work that I do. The role of an intern is a funny thing, I often feel that I am held in this tension of doing things that are seemingly imperative to the company, but but are things that no one else would ever do. So I’m necessary and invisible simultaneously? Possibly. But the beautiful thing about the humbleness of my role (and often the role of other Fellows in their job-sites) is that it pushes me to labor outside of my own gain. Thus, the job experience becomes less about the work that I must do, but rather how I complete it. The beauty of this situation is that God works amazing things with a servants heart, and his movement in my heart while at work has certainly begun to bridge the gap between the tasks that I have to complete and the ways in which I am called to exist and behave at work. The cool thing is that when God helps me understand that work is serving well where I am called to be in that moment, stuffing 85 mailboxes seems more redemptive than I once thought.

For more updates on my life as a Fellow at the Federal Executive Institute. Start here and follow along in my blog