Three weeks ago after Sunday evening church, I kissed Mary, Grant and Lucy and traveled to San Antonio to spend one full week of writing on my doctorate paper. I had been behind in my work, and the church graciously gave me a few days to buckle down and get some writing done. I went down to San Antonio and my mom came up to Waco to help take care of the kids. At the end of the week Mary and the kids came down to San Antonio and we spent some great family time together. We went to Sea World, ate some of mom's cooking, swam...and Mary and I even snuck away to see a movie!
I love San Antonio, not just because I am from there, but because of the Mexican food. Well, the Mexican food and the Alamo. Strolling the streets of San Antonio, I was reminded of Elizabeth Gilbert’s now famous book Eat Pray Love. In her book she says that every city has a word…just one word that perfectly describes the core soul of the city: NYC:Achieve, Dallas:Status, San Antonio:Fiesta, LA: Succeed, Las Vegas:Indulge, Austin:Hip, Jerusalem:Holy, London:Elite, Paris:Love. Waco is…I don’t know…Wacky? Weird? Wonderful? Hot?
Gilbert’s assertion about cities having one word that perfectly defines them got me thinking...if every city has a word, then every person could probably be defined by one word...
Strolling around the San Antonio I thought about what my word would be...it didn’t take me long, I knew it…the word that I wanted to define me. The healthy word that I knew I was called to live out. Generous -- that is my word. I want to be generous.... I want to live a generous life….I want to be generous with my love, my time, my money, my gifts. Even when I have only a little of all of those things, I still want to be generous. I want my kids to look at their dad and say he was generous…I want my friends when they are in need to say, “lets call Brad, he is always helps” I want my wife to always feel like I am generous in my love for her. I want to be generous.
I recognize there are many times when the small self takes over and that word does not define me at all. But I believe the goal of an open- minded follower of Christ is to live more and more under the banner of his or her word. So, what is your word? What word were you created to live out?
