Ambition...

...I don't have much. Grabbing a bite to eat this week, one of my new colleague-supervisors asked why i wanted that job, and i didn't have a good answer: because it sounded fun?

I REALLY need to take that First Peter admonishment to heart about having a good reason for my hope, and everything else, and think more and be caught off guard less!

Because it is a good deed sort of job, one that can do some public good. Because i want to help be a good steward of the few open spaces left around Los Angeles, and help keep the natural resources (that includes views) open for people to enjoy and have a place to let off steam from the city. Because i need experience and i can't see myself surviving as an intern in an Irvine-corporate kind of firm. Because i don't want to design housing tracts. Because i needed a second job for the summer. Because my immediate supervisor is a great person, whom i already respect, and i could tell i'd thrive working for him. Because i want to be involved in habitat restoration. Because i want to be able to work outside sometimes. Because i hope it could maybe turn into a permanent job in the future and i wanted to be a ranger when i was a little girl--not to steal my supervisor's job, but to work alongside.

Because this is my Father's world. Because Christians should have remained on the forefront of the environmental movement as a God-honoring means of obeying His mandate to tend the earth and rule over it as His regents, and a means of loving their neighbors, instead of abdicating their responsibility and cowering in enclaves of anti-nature or acting like King John à la Robin Hood.

That's all. To be promoted is to be stuck managing people or dealing with even more politics in Washington. I'd rather be outside in the dust and the mountains, sniffing pine trees to see what species they are, cataloging old fire pits, figuring out how to preserve a view when re-opening a picnic area, researching light fixtures, tagging along as the geeky side-kick, and learning a ton.