Let Hope Be Your Guide: A Reflection for International Volunteers
Our Senior Vice President of Programs and Volunteers, Dick Day, recently addressed a group of volunteers preparing for deployment in the field. In addition to more practical advice, he shared an inspiring and important reflection about the power of hope.
Last night, as I was reflecting on what I wanted to share with you today, I was struck by the importance of hope and its centrality to our work.
A wise person once said that you can live about 40 days without food, about three days without water, several minutes without air, but not a single second without hope. And as I start off, I think of our amazing mission that is focused on saving lives: “Inspired by the example of Jesus, CMMB works in partnership globally to deliver local, sustainable, quality health solutions to women, children, and their communities.”
But, just as important, I think of the opportunity you all now have to really foster and unleash hope in the people you serve and in those you serve alongside of.
Providers of Hope
I really believe that as volunteers you are providers of hope in some very profound ways, for the thousands of poor, vulnerable women and children that you are going to get a chance to impact directly or indirectly. We are essentially offering a promise of a better tomorrow, and you will actually be working to make that a reality for the people in each of the communities you will serve.
Why is hope so important? There are three things I recently read in a book called The Hope Quotient.
The first is that hope liberates. It releases people from their past failures, their hurts, and their disappointments. It sets people free to dream about a different future rather than resigning themselves to the present reality. As Paul the Apostle said, “Hope enables you to forget the past and look forward to what lies ahead.”
Second, hope motivates. It really can help people bounce back from hard situations and focus on thriving again; it helps them to focus on a new future.
Third, hope activates. It really is the fuel that gives us the opportunity to make a difference in the world. I truly think hope is one of the greatest gifts that you or I can give anyone and, frankly, it is a gift that we must continue to give in our hurting world.
Hope Leaks
There’s a saying that I heard several years ago that vision leaks and you have to be continually instilling vision because of that. In a similar fashion, hope leaks. Hope gets battered by our world. If you look around it’s easy to see that and, so, we have to always focus on recharging and expanding our hope. The question comes down to how do we do that? I have three practical suggestions I’ve been reflecting on.
Three Practical Suggestions
My first suggestion is tofocus on what we can do. Someone once said, “Unleashing hope in the world is easier than you think when you simply focus on unleashing hope, one child at a time.” Mother Teresa is quoted for saying (although it’s also been said she is misquoted in this), “Not all of us can do great things, but we can do small things with great love.”
When my wife, Betty, and I lived in Africa we often struggled with the great need around us. My father helped us to understand how we could avoid desperation and, instead, make a difference. My father explained that all of us have a sphere of knowledge — basically what we know of the world or what we see on the news — and frankly it can be very overwhelming. On the other hand, we each also all have a unique sphere of influence that’s a subset of our sphere of knowledge. This is where God has uniquely placed us to make a difference in the world. When we focus on this, it allows us to really have an impact as we use our gifts and our passions amongst those we can make a difference with.
I would encourage you, as you leave your familiar settings, to not look at everything that is going on around you, but to look at every person that comes in your presence as part of your sphere of influence. That is where you can make a profound difference and bring hope.
A second little thing that I would encourage you to do as a means of refueling your hope and as a means of expanding it, is to recall what you have been able to do. John Eldredge once said, “Faith looks back and draws courage, hope looks ahead and keeps desire alive.”
I remember visiting a Peace Corps Volunteer way up in the bush of northern Mali. He was out in the middle of nowhere, a days drive from the closest big town and he had a really challenging work environment.He started doing something for himself early in his service that I thought was brilliant, and I kick myself for not having done it in the years since. He had a big tomato can and every time something really good happened during the day he would write it down on a slip of paper, fold it up, and drop it in the can. When he had a really hard day, he would reach into that tomato can and pull something out and be reminded that good things were happening and he was making a difference, even if it didn’t feel like it all the time.
I think it’s interesting, when you look at the psalms of David you see that a lot of what he does is look back. In present situations he struggles with what’s going on and you see him almost whining to God sometimes in his honesty, asking “Why is this happening to me, why have you forsaken me, why are my enemies on me?” And in the end, you see in all these psalms that David comes back to his true source of hope. He says, “But you have been faithful to me in the past.” Reflecting back to times of accomplishment is really important.
This brings us to the third thing that taps into the psalms, and that is remembering our true source of hope is God himself.
There’s a quote from a man named Ray Lesson who says, “Hope fills us with confidence, assurance, and expectation. Confidence because God will not forsake us, assurance because God will not forget us, and expectation because God will not fail us.” And, in Hebrews 10:23 we are encouraged to “hold unswervingly to the hope we profess because he who promised is faithful.”
A Wish and Prayer
Let me close with my wish and my prayer for you as you begin your services. It’s something that apostle Paul wrote to the church in Rome, 2000 years ago. “May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of his Spirit.”