It’s sultry and there is no AC. Luckily, this fan is keeping me cool on this night that’s hot as hell. It’s comforting to see lightning bugs again. If I could, I would have played hide-and-go-seek with my friends tonight.

I am here at Notre Dame for the Life Teen Leadership Conference. Three hundred teens from around the country are here to learn to become better servants. With the power of God and a group of bright kids like this, I never know what will come of this week. Working with young people has always been a thrill. You never know who was Albert Einstein’s first grade teacher.

There is nothing in this dorm room. I have a bed, a sink, and a door. I guess it was last year at this time that I met the Franciscan Friars in Harlem, NY. Those guys own nothing. By day they take care of the poor, at night, they sleep on the floor. My time with them is etched more deeply in my memory than even the most glamorous moments with MTV.

Right now I am thinking of my seven tropical fish swimming in the desert a thousand miles away from here. Last summer I lived in the most notorious urban cultures in the world: Harlem. The summer before, I slept on floors up and down the east coast. A few months earlier I lived in a 100-year-old mansion in the prestigious Garden District of New Orleans, LA.

Sometimes I get a few minutes break from my life, and get to step back and see what I’ve gotten myself into. Life is a lot more exciting when you don’t insist on scripting it. Let God be God.