Bond vs Bourne vs me.

A recent conversation with a friend reminded me of an aspiration I once had, and it's still something that I find very intriguing: being a spy. We talked about the Bourne trilogy and how it would be awesome to be like that character in real life (although maybe minus the memory problems). One of my favorite movies as a kid was Condorman, he was sort of Disney's version of James Bond. I loved Clint Eastwood westerns, stories where some loner wandered into town at just the right time to win the heart of a local beauty, but once he rid the town of the bad guy his mangled heart wouldn't let him stay. I wanted to be like these guys, the one that bad guys fear yet secretly envy. The one that fights for a cause greater than himself, a cause that almost always sought to liberate the oppressed.

As I got older and began to travel to and work in different parts of the world, my dreams almost seemed like they could one day become reality. I found I was great with languages, was able to blend into cultures in such a way that sometimes it took a while for people to realize I wasn't a local, and actually had some people accuse me of being a spy (what better disguise than working for a Christian humanitarian organization?). But it just wasn't in me, I didn't want to live a life of deceit, I didn't want to kill. In fact, more than anything I wanted to help people find life.

Daily I'm reminded about how governments always seem to come up short, people are losing their lives because of the simplest of things, and these things are readily available and just need to be put in the right hands. We have everything the people of the world need (I wrote more about this in my Sept 14 blog) but we are failing to get the job done. We dream of being spies, toppling governments, and setting the world straight, but most of that really will just remain a dream. The world doesn't need more people chasing the romantic ideas of becoming the next Jason Bourne, the world needs more regular people like you and me to simply get out there and give more of our non-spy, non-superhero selves.

If you follow me on Facebook you've likely seen that this week I have created a birthday wish link on my page. I know I'll never be a spy, but I know of a way to help the people of another nation. The people of Haiti are in desperate need of clean water (amongst many, many other things) and we as regular people can really conquer this problem if we will actually take the time to give of ourselves and not just talk about giving. Next summer I hope to move to Haiti to to help the cause, and donations sent to the Haiti Water Project will help people in a way that most of us could never imagine without seeing it first hand. If you've ever dreamed of helping the people of another land with some special ability that you have, there is no better nor more worthy opportunity than this. Your ability to give to those in need is worth far more than your ability to kill with your bare hands will ever be...