Serving Through Leadership

Well this is the equivalent of spitting into the wind, but I figure I ought to try. As a graduating senior in journalism and public relations at ISU, I need to start writing online at some point. I really don't know how many people will be interested in reading the musings of a corn-fed Iowa farm boy, but who knows. Someone may find it useful or at least entertaining.
The title of my blog, Running Through Cornfields, is something that I feel we're all doing in one way or another. We may be trying to get to a certain goal, but we've got to get through hell to reach it. It'll probably have some kind of misery involved, be confusing, and we may even get lost a time or two. In the end it's the experience and how we treat others during said experience that defines us as people.
I'm looking forward to my training to be a second lieutenant in the United States Army. I want to serve God and my country by serving the men I'll be put in charge of. Jesus tells us that if you want to lead, you have to serve; those that want to be first, must put themselves last. Sounds like the job description of a military officer to me.
Hopefully I can live up to the title of an U.S. Army officer, but that's why I'm hitting the weights and pounding dirt (aka running) to get in shape and learning everything I can about being a good soldier. I'm not sure how many books I've read at this point on the subject, but you can't read enough on history and what other people have gone through, otherwise we're doomed to make the same mistakes.
Right now I'm preparing for a service trip to Louisiana with my church here in Ames. I've been put in charge of eight other college students and we'll be down in the Five Fingers area of the bayous southwest of New Orleans, while the other half of the group goes to Camp Restore in New Orleans. Houma is the largest city in that area, but we'll be in Chauvin working for Bayou Grace. I'm excited to get on the road Saturday morning because the road trip is half the fun; stopping in gas stations, eating Waffle House, and communicating over the radio about random topics with other vehicles in our group. Pray for us to have servants' hearts and the will to get whatever jobs placed in front of us done.