This morning I woke up and stepped out into the cool pre-dawn air. As I walked to the MWR building, I noticed something I hadn't seen in a few days - the mountains. Here in Bagram the mountains form a circle around the entire area. The brown foothills give way to majestic, snow-covered ridges. Two days of rain and the subsequent mud layer knocked down all the dust and haze and unveiled what, in many other countries, would pass for a great place to be a ski resort. Simply gorgeous. If only...
After class I set out for my tent. With all this walking my toes are beginning to rub uncomfortably against each other. I stopped in at the PX (Post eXchange = convenience store for the military folks) and bought some cloth tape. With two toes wrapped, the pain in each step has subsided significantly. Hopefully the little toe at the end will calm down quickly...
To my delight, tonight at the DFAC they served ribeye steaks off the grill. I'd been smelling them all afternoon. When I asked my students they told me that Friday night is always Surf 'n' Turf night. Sure enough, when I got in line I saw the steaks and the shrimp. The steak was done beautifully. With a little salt and pepper (along with green beans, broccoli and cucumbers), dinner was fantastic.
Now here I am in this gorgeous country eating some excellent food. And I can't help but think, "What if?" What if the people decide to band together and build a country that seeks to care for its people? What if this nation rises from the dust and lives up to its potential? There are so many good things here - friendly people, lots of history, ski resorts waiting to be built (Iran has some fantastic skiing, and they're just next door), opium production (don't kid yourself - we need the pharmaceuticals). If the people here wanted to make it so, Afghanistan would be one heck of a country in ten years.
And then I thought of my own potential.
I'm reading through a book written by Paul Gupta and Sherwood Lingenfelter titled, "Breaking Tradition to Accomplish Vision." Every page drips with a challenge to abandon conventional thinking and norm-conforming behavior to step up and be all that God intended for us to be.
Some people say that one of the worst insults is to be told, "You have potential." While it can be an attempt to encourage one to pursue avenues not previously considered, it can also come across as a blunt reminder that one is coasting through life without realizing all that God intended for one to be.
Like Afghanistan, I too think that I have much potential to realize.
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