I just got back about an hour ago from Atlanta, and greeted and hugged and talked to everybody at home, and now I’m winding down and getting ready to head to bed before getting back to work in the morning.

I had been in Atlanta with my Dad and two brothers at our yearly tradition of seeing the SEC Men’s Basketball Tourney. We’re all Kentucky fans, and they lost their first championship game since 1996 today (a couple of times they got bounced in the first round, and every other time , until this year, they go on and win the semi final game and the tournament championship game. Today Florida got ’em, and bounced them out of a number one seed. They may meet Cincinnati in round two, assuming they don’t lose to Eastern Kentucky (coached by former star Travis Ford) or Cincy doesn’t lose to Iowa.

The game Saturday was a barn-burner, overtime, with Chuck Hayes scoring the game winner with 7 seconds left.

What was most memorable for me, this weekend, though, was finishing up my reading of Jim Wallis’ God’s Politics. I carried it with me to all the games to read during boring tourney games, halftimes, pregames, and awaiting Marta rides to and from the hotel.

I have many stirrings within me about what constructive thing I can be, or should be doing. As I read and found inspiration by the stories Jim told (many of which I’ve read in other of Jim’s writings), I was especially reflective and confronted with the short piece on vocation and career; which I heard him speak on in a couple other places this past week. It’s about how vocation is finding that place where your gifts and some great need meet. I wrote a bit about this last weekend and recalled some of Elizabeth O’Connor’s wrting about this as she wrote of the experiences of the journey of the Church of the Saviour. There very likely will be more to come on this, but tonight I need to be getting ready for bed and talking with Janet a bit after being gone for 4 days.