Last week was my final week of Kadesh here at Leadership Camps. We spent the summer talking about hope and I was able to see it in so many of the stories that I heard not just from speakers but campers as well. Working at camp we hear many of the same stories each week and you'd imagine that at some point they'd begin to get old, but they haven't. Each week something new seems to stand out; like watching your favorite movie for the hundredth time and finally noticing that random gas tank in the back even though it's set in the 1600's.
The thought I took away from last week was simple yet I've found it in many ways to be profound. Bob Strader was speaking on a Thursday afternoon and said, "You are going to change the world because of the hope you have in you". I sat there for a moment tired, willing myself to stay awake and then what he said ran through my mind again. When it clicked that he used the words "change the world", I quickly grabbed my notebook and wrote it down because I started this blog to do just that. To write about small and large ways we can each change the world, believing that one day it will be a better place because of the things you and I have done.
As I sat there thinking about this idea of changing the world through the hope we have in ourselves I realized something. Everyone desires hope. Hope for something better, for something more. It is a universal desire even if it manifests itself in different ways for each individual. The middle class American hopes that one day they can retire and not work quite so hard, or that the stock market wasn't doing so poorly because their kids are about to leave for college. The woman in the Sudan wakes up hoping that she can find food for her 3 children and that she has not passed along HIV to them. We hope for peace. We hope for prosperity. We hope for clean water. We hope for shelter.
We all hope, and bringing hope to the hopeless will change the world. You see hope is contagious, you can not keep it to yourself. Imagine getting that one thing you desire most in the world and then not telling a soul about it. You couldn't do it. It's impossible to not share with others and hope is the same way. The way we live our lives each day can bring hope to those around us. Taking the time to hold a door open or smiling as you pass a stranger on the street. Finding time to call the friend you know could really use it or writing a letter of encouragement to someone in your life. Sponsoring a child through World Vision is a great way to bring hope to someone in need. When we view hope in this way and realize the life changing impact it can have on someone, we are struck with an amazing fact, there are hundreds of opportunities before us each day to change the world.
In Shawshank Redemption there is a famous quote that says, "Hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things, and no good thing ever dies". Tomorrow as you live your life I challenge you to open your eyes to the opportunities that are before you each day to spread the hope you have inside of you, and to stretch yourself in finding new ways to bring hope to the hopeless. Because by doing this you truly can change the world one person at a time.
"Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have." 1 Peter 3:15
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