Imagine that you are 27, single and in possession of a well-paying career. What should you do? Many would say, "Live it up. Sow some wild oats. Buy a bunch of toys. Spend your money and have a good time."

And, probably, get out of Hanford to a place with more entertainment, more nightlife, more diversions.

So goes one line of thought, one way of living.

But for Noah Lawson, there is another road, and it goes like this: Work to renew a world badly in need of it, and do it where you live.

If you guessed that the 27-year-old Lemoore resident is a Christian, you chose correctly. If you guessed that Lawson doesn't have the live-it-up, shop-'til-you-drop, have-fun-24/7 mentality, you are on the right track.

"He is always about, 'It's for the betterment of the community, it's for the betterment of the world we live in,'" said longtime friend and mentor Linda Atkinson.

At 18, Lawson went through a year of seminary training. At 19, he was elected to the Lemoore High School District board of trustees, a position he still holds.

As a high school senior, he supervised the construction of Kings County's first Habitat for Humanity house.

Now, at 27, he's district director for first-term Assemblyman Danny Gilmore, R-Hanford.

"I really am interested in making a difference. Being a change agent," Lawson said.

And not just any random difference either, as in the popular bumper sticker "Commit random acts of kindness and senseless beauty."

Lawson is driven by a robust Christian faith that says God has mounted a rescue mission to renew the world, a mission which Christians are called to participate in.

It was 8:30 a.m., and he was enjoying breakfast at Star Restaurant in Hanford, doing an interview for this story. Lawson was in a tie and seersucker suit. Ready to go to work. Ready to seek the public good.

Not only ready. Called.

That's the word he used.

"Whatever you are doing, you are first and foremost a Christian," he said.

And how does that play out for Lawson? Not in writing society off, but in finding ways to serve it, re-create it, work to sustain the good in it.

And do it not in some far-off dramatic place, but in the dust and the heat and the fog of Kings County.

"I don't think there are an awful lot of young people out there who really have the drive and the heart to help other people," said Jim Maciel, who worked with Lawson on the Habitat project.

There was a time when Lawson planned to get out, go to the University of Southern California, major in political science, maybe disappear from Kings County for good.

It didn't work out that way. The Habitat project went beyond his senior year. He didn't get into USC. He found himself going to West Hills College Lemoore.

At first, he wondered, "What am I doing here?" But gradually, through prayer and reflection, he said he started to see the opportunities.

He realized that instructors at West Hills are probably as good, or even better, than hotshot USC professors.

Working on the Habitat project, he learned that "a lot of people are looking to do something good and meaningful," but might not see the opportunity.

Lawson has gone beyond seeing opportunities for himself to creating opportunities for others.

He's got a vision of being involved in politics that has everything to do with promoting the good of his fellow human beings and little to do with party politics.

Sure, he finds himself working for a Republican assemblyman, but ask him why he works for Danny Gilmore, and the answer is clear: Because he thinks Gilmore is a "good man" worth helping. Because he's seen Gilmore buck the party line to do things he decided were right.

Lawson believes that public service is not a career, it's an act of service.

But what does he ultimately want to do with his life? Be a teacher. He graduated from Fresno Pacific University with a teaching credential in December 2007.

For now, Lawson feels called to continue working for Gilmore. The assemblyman invited Lawson to be district director after Lawson worked on Gilmore's losing 2006 campaign and his successful 2008 run.

There's little glamour for the district director. One afternoon, Lawson might be standing in food lines in Huron, talking to out-of-work farm laborers hit hard by drought and environmental policies in the Sacramento-San Joaquin River delta. Another day, he might be meeting with a small business association looking for ways to stimulate economic development.

Still, there are perks. One of them: Getting paid substantially more than a teacher.

Lawson cracked a grin as he said it. Because for him, it's not really about the money.

But it may be about a sense of place. A sense of belonging. A sense of -- to use an old Christian term -- vocation.

"I think God has made the opportunities available here. I think there is something special and worthwhile about our way of life as it is unique to our Valley and our county. It's worth preserving and defending -- and it's worth growing and improving," he said.

The reporter can be reached at 583-2432.

(Sept. 26, 2009)