Hope and Faith

I can hardly remember back when I was in middle school, but if I remember correctly, we didn’t have the same pressures as kids do these days. The advances of society can be part of the blame. We encourage growth in the world today and with that growth there comes a responsibility for us to grow and mature with society.  Well middle school students today are forced to meet these advances head on and some with no direction on which way to go. For some students advancing is not always just that easy. Some students do not have the tools to keep up with their peers, whether it is in the academic or social arena, some just fall behind.  Most of us parents send our kids to school without even thinking twice that they may not be at the same academic level of most of the kids in their classes. We assume you are in sixth grade, so you should know sixth grade material right? The previous school said they were ready so we trust in what the professionals tell us.

I had the wonderful opportunity to do my community based learning at a local middle school. I wasn’t sure what to expect when I picked this type of volunteer work, especially because middle school kids, at least eighth graders, are one step from high school, so having them listen to you could prove to be difficult. As I receive my first assignment in the volunteer world, I was met by the science teacher and was told that he needed me to encourage one of the kids to participate with his group so he can be included in the group work. From what I was told the student is withdrawn from the rest of the class and usually just sits there by himself during class and group time. The teacher had his hands full with the rather large class size of kids as she was demonstrating how to perform a science project. I sat next to the student, introduced myself and eventually helped him engage with his group. When I went back the next week my volunteer time, I was assigned the science class again and the same student looked eager to see me, and this time he willing went with his group and participated. Seeing this student go outside his normal comfort zone was confirmation for me that by giving kids the extra support and showing them they have hope, they can accomplish anything. I know this was just a small fraction of help or assistance that some of the students that feel left out need, but it is a big step forward for one kid that now has the confidence he needs to be successful. You see this student was probably going to get a bad grade in the class due to him not participating in group sessions.  Now he will be graded accordingly from his input and knowledge of the class.

I am currently reading a book title “The Hope” by Andrew Harvey. The book talks about stories ordinary people have had and how they persevered through having faith and hope. Some of the stories were about giving back to the community in the capacity of giving someone else hope. In one of the stories a man’s father is on his last days and leans over to tell his son “All that will matter when you lie dying, as I am now, is knowing that you gave what you could to help others and that you are loved, not for what you have and not even for what you have done, but for what you are” (Harvey).  I truly believe in these words as helping others should be from the kindness of your heart and not in return of anything. Helping others and giving back to your community is what will allow hope to be sustainable. I am sharing this book with three of my children so they will understand and know what a great gift of giving is and to always have faith because without faith it is hard to have hope.

References:

Harvey, Andrew (2009-08-01). The Hope (p. 48). Hay House. Kindle Edition.

~Melvin Smith, March 2014

Growing Faith

When I first heard David U’s story, I was emotionally disarmed.  David, a church leader in Ethiopia, was attacked by a group of men brandishing guns and machetes one fateful morning in his home community.  Miraculously, David survived this violent attack and lives on to share his awe inspiring testimony of his love for Jesus Christ and the power of faith.  Although the dangers David faces are numerous and close-to-home, he continues to fight for his beliefs and to not be intimidated by those who choose to persecute him.  As David so courageously asserts, “The Lord has given me another chance to serve Him. The bullets didn’t get me. I have seen the darkest night, bullets flying past me. There were more than 30 attackers. It is by the prayers and support of other believers we survived so far. I can only say God wants me to continue His work here. I have some unfinished business here.”  In my work with Open Doors, a charity group who helps persecuted Christians around the world, I have heard a number of other, similarly inspiring testimonies of Christians who face horrific persecution in religiously suppressed countries.  These brave people often live in environments of dire poverty with dangerously rampant crime rates and a complete lack of religious freedom.  In spite of the hellacious conditions they have to endure, these people clutch firmly onto their faith and rise above the darkness that surrounds them.  What they all have in common is not just faith; that is an essential component of their plight, but what they also share is something of equal importance: Hope.  In the words of Orison Swett Marden, “There is no medicine like hope, no incentive so great, and no tonic so powerful as expectation of something tomorrow.”

When I first started looking into which course I wanted to take for my Senior Capstone at PSU, I was unsure exactly what I wanted to do.  I found myself drawn into a long episode of self-questioning: What am I passionate about?  What kind of project can I do that best utilizes the skills that I have acquired in my college career?   What Capstone can I take that can realistically be completed in a term?  Finally and perhaps, most importantly: Is there a project I can do that has relevance to my Christian faith?  All of these questions were dancing through my mind when I began sifting through the list of available Capstone courses that appeared on the fall term schedule of classes for PSU.  As I was scanning through the list, one course title jumped right off the page at me; it was called Mobilizing Hope.  I was a bit surprised to see a course with that kind of name because I really wasn’t expecting to find anything faith-related in the schedule of classes at a school like PSU (with all due respect).  But the word hope always makes me think of faith and the power of belief; not just because the name of the church I attend is called Hope Community Church, although I consider that to be a rather happy coincidence.  When I looked further into the details of the course, I was very pleased to see that it was a perfect fit for me and for my goal of basing my Capstone project around both utilizing and growing in my faith.  It was with all of these things in mind that I chose to participate in a letter writing campaign with the Christian charity group Open Doors.

When I first began my project I was a little unsure where to start.  I had been given a list of people to write letters to by Open Doors, but I knew that I would need to do a lot of research before delving into my letter writing.  I really didn’t want to commit the blunder of commenting on situations in places in the world that are very foreign to me without fully understanding the social, political and spiritual climates of the countries where my letters would ultimately be sent.  So, off I went, researching places like Ethiopia and Kenya, trying to understand what it is like to live in those parts of the world and what words of encouragement could I offer to the people living there.  When the time came to start drafting my letters, I found it to be less intimidating than I had initially thought.  Although I struggled at first to find the right words, I quickly discovered that all I really needed to do was speak from the heart.  From then on, the words came much quicker and I feel that I was able to express my words of encouragement in the right way.  The message I was relaying was simple, but nonetheless important: To keep trusting God no matter what life throws at you.  What I discovered in the process of writing these letters was that the things I wrote didn’t just have the effect of helping the intended audience, they also had a profound effect on me at a time in my life when I have faced a number of personal crisis’s and have had my faith tested. 

A major lesson taught in Mobilizing Hope was that there is a great benefit and value in dealing with those that live in the margins.  Through the essays and articles that I bared witness to throughout this term as well as in my experiences with Open Doors, I have seen how true this is.  The benefits are numerous, but for me personally, the most profound realization I came to after engaging with those in the margins is how truly lucky I am to have the luxuries and freedoms that I am afforded in my life and also, with the right kind of mindset, I have the power to make the world a better place, even if just in a small way.  In the words of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, “There remains an experience of incomparable value.  We have for once learnt to see the great events of world history from below, from the perspective of the outcast, the suspects, the maltreated, the powerless, the oppressed, the reviled—in short, from the perspective of those who suffer.” 

I went into the process of choosing a Senior Capstone with only the slight hope of finding something that would relate to my faith, let alone enhance it.  In the end, I found something that caused my faith to be challenged and grow on a number of levels and gave me a much fuller understanding of the impact that faith, hope and the fight for social justice have on the world.  I learned that these three things are closely intertwined and really can’t exist without each other.  Therefore, I now understand that I have a great responsibility and opportunity to help make the world a better place through my faith and newly enlightened philosophy that hope is the driving force to all positive change in this world.  It is a light that God shines down into our darkness that gives us the strength to fight for what matters; for what is true, for what is good, for what is fair and for what is right.    

--Daniel Pribyl

Chicken Project!

Hope is...

Please watch this wonderful video, by Chris Chesbro of our Mobilizing Hope Capstone. Powerful!

Three Keys to Social Activism

HOPE. Hope is undoubtedly where it all begins. It is most certainly our motivator. Hope recognizes the truth in a worthy cause, eats away at the human heart, and forces those bold enough to hope to do something about it. Thus, hope is out starting point in social activism. If we have nothing to strive towards, nothing to gain, if we see nothing in need of change or reconciliation we simply will remain idol enablers of injustice ignorant of a suffering world before us.

            False Hope. While hope is the heartbeat to activism, and perhaps even life as a whole, there exists an even greater enemy to mankind than a hopeless heart and that would be false hope. I have come to find in life that there are two kinds of people: the hopeful and the despairing. Of those who hope I have further noticed their hope comes from one of three things: hope in man, hope in self, or hope in God. Hope in man gives power over to humans we often deem more capable than ourselves to do what we believe as right. Sometimes this can work. However, we are often left disappointed because no one can live up to our idolized expectations. Furthermore, hope in others diminishes both our cause and our self as it neglects to join with others revealing both our laziness and lack of passion. Secondly, hope in self states that if I work hard enough I can achieve anything. This method is dangerous as it both leaves much of the cause up to chance and endangers the self of becoming burnt out and beaten down. In addition, it also tempts man, when success is granted, into becoming prideful in the victories of what he sees as his own doing and leads him to despair when his efforts are being stifled. Ultimately, both types of hope can often lead a once hopeful man into becoming a man of despair.

            Hope in God. It is, then, that the only hope surpassing all others, the only true hope for a despairing humanity is hope in God. This idea is articulated by the great theologian Jürgen Moltmann: “Without faith’s knowledge of Christ, hope becomes a utopia and remains hanging in the air... it is that hope in Christ gives hope its assurance.” This Christian hope is often seen as irrelevant to our modern world. However, it is that this hope in Christ is actually the only hope that both determines and unites all moral and just causes. It determines them because it is this God who himself is the very definition of justice and righteousness. It unites because he is a God present and active in all things good in this world, therefore, they all relate back to him. This Christian hope is all surpassing because, first and foremost, it recognizes the victory is already won. Christ on the cross conquered the demanded payment for the sins of all humanity and saved the world from a devastating life separated from God. Secondly, this victory relates to today's issues not only because humanity continues to need the payment of Jesus’ blood, but also because it reveals to a despairing humanity that God is still present and active in the world. The kingdom of God is forcefully advancing-- the second component of Christian hope. That an all powerful, all loving, all merciful, just and omnipotent God is still involved in a world of pain, despair, murder, oppression, immorality and injustice is certainly reason for hope. This hope is based on followers of Christ joining with God in the mission of reconciling the world to himself in order to reestablish his intended order on earth. However, because he is loving he has never forced man into relationship with himself, but rather has granted man the liberty to choose. This means man is able to choose evil, and unfortunately, to inflict that evil upon others. Here is where the third and equally powerful aspect of hope comes in: the hope of future glory. This future glory means that one day Christ will reappear to mankind on earth and “wipe away every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain” (Revelation 21:4). Everything will be restored, all justice will be established and enforced, and God will forever by fully present with his people. This future glory will be so great that Paul boldly declares, “I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us” (Romans 8:8). It is that great, impenetrable hope that endures through all things and all circumstance. And so it is that we can summarize by saying not only is the centrality of social activism hope, but center to hope is Christ.

            RELATIONSHIP. DAILY LIFE. With hope now defined we move on to the means by which we establish justice and peace in our world. Contrary to what many may think it is not necessarily done by protests, rallies or fancy speeches to the masses, though those certainly have their effect. The single most effective way in which we change the world is by changing the world around us.  This is done through our often mundane daily lives and already established relationships to other people. As is wisely stated by Thich Nhat Hanh, “Our daily lives have the most to do with the situation of the world. If we can change our daily lives, we can change our governments, and we can change the world.” This is because our daily lives are what “win the respect of outsiders” (1 Thes. 4:12). This exaltation of the daily life does not diminish the power in the great works, but rather reckons upon the even more powerful effects of a mundane life lived out nobly. Allowing love to seep through our relationships to those unworthy of it, our willingness to consistently work hard under any circumstance or any person, our desire to serve others asking nothing in return all speak louder than any words can and eliminate the possibility of accusations of hypocrisy when we finally open our mouths to speak. The truth is, with true hope and a worthy cause on our hearts, we should be compelled to speak. However, we should speak first by the consistencies of our daily lives, letting the words come later to prove us true, our hope pure and our cause noble.

            RECONCILIATION. The third and final component of social justice is reconciliation. It is, essentially, what hope seeks in the grander sense and what relationships should strive for. My community partner this term has been Colossae Church in Tigard, OR. This church seeks to be active in the community often by providing for basic needs in the schools throughout the district, primarily the high school. The mission statement, the hope behind this church’s movement is “to see the church join in God’s mission of reconciling the world to Himself through Jesus.” Not only does there exist a desire to see man reconciled to God, but from that stems a desire to also see man reconciled to man and man reconciled to truth. Reconciliation does not discriminate. It strives to see men reckon upon truth, even the oppressor. It seeks to see man reconcile to man even when forgiveness seems impossible. Reconciliation recognizes all humanity as purely, wholly, equally human, strips man of individual pride, need for revenge, and removes personal vendetta or vanity. The desire for reconciliation as a goal in social activism removes self form the equation and declares the cause worthy in and of itself. It doesn’t seek to see others brought to their deserved justice, but rather saves them from it altogether as they join the side of truth.

~Michaela Loewer

The Littlest Servant

I never thought an 8-year old would have such a profound effect on my life. I never dreamed of being nearly graduated from college then suddenly wanting to change career paths. I didn’t foresee God stepping in and using children to teach me. Of course, God tends to work in my life in ways I would never expect and at times I can never predict. I’m getting used to just going along for the ride.

I went into my senior year of college dreading my senior capstone. I thought it was an incredibly stupid class, requiring us to pay more money to do free work in a field that has nothing to do with our future lives. I don’t think I’ve ever been more wrong in my life.

Every essay I read for this class brought things to my attention I had never given much thought to. Perhaps I just didn’t want to think about them. That way I could stay safe and comfortable in my life and with my faith in a Jesus I didn’t fully understand. With each passing week, I was confronted more and more with a choice: Jesus, or comfort. This choice burned within me because I knew which one I should choose, but that path meant working toward something I may never achieve, every single day for the rest of my life. It meant trying to make change and live the radical way Jesus did, and not treat my life with the taken-for-granted complacency I had become so accustomed to. It terrified me, because I didn’t know how to do it. To be honest, I still don’t.

The 8-year old that changed my life was present though all of this. She was there, helping God change me, once a week for three hours. And that was it. That was all it took. It wasn’t only this little girl herself who changed me, but what she represented. She had a childlike innocence that I loved with a real intelligent mind and a bit of an idea of who she was. She negotiated and didn’t take no for an answer, which as her teacher made my job difficult, but secretly I was proud of her for that. It will serve her well when she gets out into the world. Perhaps the reason she affected me so much was because she embodied what I wanted my children to be like, and what I wanted to help nurture in all of God’s children. Isn’t it funny how we get so frustrated at those kids who are different, stubborn, independent, smart-asses and yet deep-down that’s how we want them to turn out as adults?

The first time I met her, she reminded me to much of myself when I was her age that I had to laugh. It was because of this girl that the things I was learning stuck. She made the choice more real for me, showing me that it wasn’t just myself at stake. This little girl depended on that choice, as did all the kids in my class. I wanted so badly to make a lasting effect on her, to give her some kind of tool to help her cope with the future. I was insecure and not independent and didn’t know who I was when I was younger, and I made mistakes because of it that I regretted deeply for a long time. When I looked at her, I felt this desire to impart the lessons I had learned on her so that she would be better prepared than I was, so she wouldn’t make the same mistakes I had. I wanted her to make different, better mistakes. I wanted her to think back on her life, and remember that one teacher she had that truly made a difference.

And then it hit me. I knew I had to do something, to make a difference in children’s lives. I always knew God had given me this gift of teaching and a heart for children; why hadn’t I thought of this before? I needed to be a teacher!

I also know that I needed to be different. I needed to shine the light Jesus had given me into the lives of others, especially “the least of these.” He taught me the importance of that, and gave me a practical lesson in how to do it, when he put me in the midst of these kids, especially this little girl.

My heart changed. It grew three sizes and poured out more love than it took in. It learned tiny steps forward are better than standing still. Even if you don’t know where you’re going or you don’t think you’re making a difference, keep moving forward.

On the very last day the little girl stuck by my side, even at recess. Then she wrote me a letter telling me to have fun and keep being me. It was like God was telling me, “Well done, my good and faithful servant” through the pencil of one of his littlest servants.

Thank you, Marissa.

~ Nikita Collier