Find the Needle: The Search Party
A search party usually starts with bad news, hoping for a good outcome. How do you mobilize the right search party to solve a community problem?
As one who holds out hope to others, how do you ensure you don’t run out? In this article, four areas are offered as nurturing elements for your life.
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Imagine yourself holding out hope as a gift to another person. You know they have none, you have some, and you are willing to give some of your hope away, so you hold it out for them to take. Whether they receive it or not, you are ready to give them the hope they need.
When we use the phrase “holding out hope” it’s not usually with this idea in mind of giving it away. It’s usually from the perspective of holding out hope for yourself. I submit to you that in whatever you do in service to the neighbors in your community you are holding out hope. However, I want to take the idea of passing along hope a little further. Hope itself is a resource. It may not be as measurable to your donors, but over time, stories tell the story. The individual impact and the community impact will be increasingly measurable where hope is seen as something to also give away.
Where there is little or no hope, it is difficult, if not impossible to dream, to believe in the possibility of progress, and maybe even to live. Hopelessness guts a person, families, entire communities, and nations. From food insecurity to starvation, from housing shortages to homelessness, from working poor to jobless poverty, the human needs are immense and long-standing. It’s difficult to find a reason for hope, much less feel hopeful when the challenges seem inescapable and insurmountable.
Merriam-Webster defines hope as “desire accompanied by expectation of, or belief in fulfillment.” Hope can feel like a light that shows up in a totally dark room where you have been sitting immobile and trapped for a very long time. Finally, there seems to be a way out after you have wondered for so long if you will ever find an escape or be rescued.
But what if you believe you are holding out hope and later find that the hands you are holding out are empty? I’m not speaking of the tangible resource you offer. I am speaking of the intangible hope that you bear…or don’t bear. Sure, the tangibles provide some level and kind of hope, but even those can start feeling empty if they aren’t changing the storyline to a better one.
There is something about the state of the deliverer that creates an atmosphere where these exchanges can lead to new possibilities. A hope-filled deliverer feels very different from one who has little or no hope. They carry themselves differently, interact differently, and send you off differently.
At other times, you may hope better for others than you hope for yourself. The challenge is, eventually, that hope given to others runs out if you don’t have sources to refuel that hope in you. You can’t give what you don’t have. When you hold out your hands to give hope, are they brimming to overflow, partially full, or uncomfortably empty?
It is important to know what you can do to nurture the hope in you so that you have plenty of it to give. What are some ways to be sure that you have no shortage? Here are a few areas to consider for your self-assessment and for developing patterns for your daily and weekly life that will refuel you. As you read, I encourage you to choose one of the four main areas for focused development.
1. Your BeingInterestingly, how you feel physically and how you feel about your physical health has an impact on the quality of your hope. It’s difficult to help others feel good about life when you don’t feel good. So, do you consistently care well for your physical body, inside and out?
3. Your Brain
How do you consistently care for that neurological center in your skull? Neuroplasticity and neurogenesis are continually growing spaces of brain science that are platforms for hope. Why? It means we can change the way we think and act when we do so with intention. But it also means the brain has to be cared for to be an agent of hope.
4. Your Belief
What do you believe about yourself, your life, your future, your neighbors, your community, and your world? To what level do you believe? Do you believe with expectation? Hope does.
Of these four areas—Being, Body, Brain, and Belief—choose one where you know you need adjustments. Focus on that one for the next thirty days, considering the ideas provided here, and even exploring more.
My purpose in this article is to show that in the space of human services, case management, community development, and collaboration building, hope is a necessary resource. That resource must be stewarded well if it is to be available at the levels demanded.
Hope. The more you have, the more you can hold out as a gift to others. Create life and work atmospheres where hope not only survives but thrives so that you live and give from abundance.
Do you desire to strengthen your CharityTracker or Oasis Insight network to new levels of collaboration and impact? Reach out to Chuck today to schedule your conversation: chuck@simonsolutions.com.
Dr. Chuck Coward serves as Community Impact Specialist for Simon Solutions, Inc. Chuck has invested over 35 years in fostering human and community development from a variety of places and roles, including as a pastor, non-profit Executive Director, Director of Development, businessman, consultant, university professor, as The Struggle Coach and as founder of Entrusted Foundation. Serving to make people and communities stronger is his great passion. Chuck is the proud husband to Anita, dad to four, and granddaddy to eight.
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