Surrender

All That Really Belongs to Us

If we are really honest with ourselves, we must admit that our lives are all that really belong to us, so it is how we use our lives that determines what kind of persons we are. And it is my deepest belief that only by giving our lives do we find life. I am convinced that the truest act of courage, the strongest act of humanity, is to sacrifice ourselves for something higher--that which we believe in and love deeply.

Cesar Chavez

Courage

To Live Courageously

Courage is exhibited when someone strikes out into unfamiliar territory where few if any have yet gone, and helps pioneer a new way of working and serving. [They] blaze new trails despite what everyone else around them is doing, and whether or not others join, they do what they see is right, at whatever sacrifice. When someone lives originally and courageously, it inspires others to examine their own lives and actions and find within themselves the courage to follow their own original paths.

Dave Smith

To Be of Use

If

If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you;
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or being hated, don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise:

If you can dream -- and not make dreams your master;
If you can think -- and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two imposters just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build 'em up with worn-out tools;

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breathe a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: "Hold on!"

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with kings -- nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run --
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And -- which is more -- you'll be a Man, my son!

~Rudyard Kipling

Creating courage

Fear paralyzes people and communities. 

Far too often fear drives people toward a default position of "group think" or, worse, inaction, isolation and debilitating pessimism.  It's not hard to think of many examples of this social dynamic at work today in our society/nation.  Just listen to the political ads from both sides and you'll pick up on the fear tactics.

But, thankfully, there are other options within our reach. 

Challenging situations and times drive imagination. 

Difficulty fuels creativity. 

To be more accurate I guess I should say tough times and circumstances may inspire imagination and creativity if courage rises to the surface.  Finding, inspiring, celebrating and deepening courage in individuals and communities is likely the most important aspect of any transformative effort in tough neighborhoods. 

Some choose to call this essential ingredient "faith" or "hope."  I think "courage" is the best word. 

Courage combines faith, hope, optimism and boldness with a gritty, tenacity that allows folks to persist even in grave situations. 

Genuine courage is not some wispy, emotional aspiration.  Authentic courage finds a way to execute, no matter how tough the circumstances or the situation.  Even in the face of repeated failure, setbacks and mounting opposition, courage keeps at the struggle.  Courage does not surrender. 

When groups of people come together with courage, things change.  At times the movement feels absolutely glacial, but the change still comes. 

Courage has a way of inspiring imagination right in the midst of the struggle for improvement, change and justice.  Imagination routinely pushes the edges and contributes to changing the rules of a community for the better. 

Courage is fundamentally about the motives of the actors on a community stage.  Institutions controlled by and controlling the status quo often insist with great pride on reviewing "outcomes" of a project or an effort.   While important, such a limited approach doesn't allow for the full affect of the courageous work to be realized, evaluated or understood.  Show me a person motivated by courage with a vision for community engagement and improvement and I'll show you a person who will not quit no matter what the difficulty.  They also usually find a way to satisfy the reporting requirements of various observers who remain risk averse in positions of much greater safety. 

Leaders seeking to inspire courage in their communities ask two questions again and again. 

First, "What do you lose sleep over?" 

And second, "What are you willing to do about it?"  

We find ourselves in the midst of those important questions with our friends and neighbors more and more frequently these days. 

I've about decided that our entire work here is all about "creating courage" by discovering the people who want in the fight for a better city. 

Can we connect the dots? Part I

A couple of days ago I visited one of the poorest neighborhoods in inner city Dallas, Texas.  A large scale community project was underway.  Over 100 volunteers from Home Depot worked side-by-side with the residents of the neighborhood to build a KaBoom! playground for the children who live there.  It was a very cool experience. 

As I drove away, my mind continued to spin. 

How do we change, reclaim and rebuild blighted areas like this one?  I know it takes leadership, and this community has that on the ground every day.  It also has a business champion (one of these posts I'll tell you about the particular, courageous leaders at work here) devoted to following the lead of the local leader. 

Still, substandard housing, lots of it rental and slumlord owned, dominates the streets.  Vacant lots abound.  People and work have basically disappeared over the past 40 years.  The schools are weak, the drop out rates extremely high and not improving.  Unemployment for those still living in the area is very high, and those who work don't earn enough to make life work, certainly not work well. 

Then, I think of the Louisiana coast, of New Orleans, of the fishing professionals who've been wiped out by the incredible BP spill into the Gulf of Mexico that now laps up into the wetlands and sweeps around the Florida coast on its way up the East Coast. 

I think of terrorists and oil imports and what seems to me to be clear connections. 

Somehow in the midst of all of this challenge, each of these large scale difficulties, swirling and seemingly disconnected, we may have a perfect storm brewing that will blow in great opportunity for bold, creative responses or one that will blow us further and further away from each other and down the wrong path. 

What we need in the neighborhoods and among the people with whom I work is heroic leadership willing to think with great, amazing creativity to connect the dots of opportunity that can be identified in the swirl of these seemingly desperate problems.  While the issues/challenges may seem disconnected, I'd argue that we dare not allow them to be viewed in isolation from one another. 

Drop in tomorrow for the rest of my ponderings. . .

Nick Vujicic

Nick Vujicic.

Not sure I've ever seen or heard anything quite like his story or his attitude.  Life through a million tears, tears that can inspire a transformation; better, a revolution of living!



Learn more at Nick's website here.

Two soldiers

I've been thinking about the two of them all weekend. I suppose it's the Memorial Day holiday that has focused my attention and memory.

Two soldiers who served in WWII.

One, my dad, served in the U. S. Army Air Corps prior to the creation of the U. S. Air Force as a separate branch of the U. S. Armed Forces. He served throughout his assignment in Lubbock, Texas at the Army Air Base there, working as an airplane mechanic. As was the case with many farmers, my dad was discharged so that he could return to the farm and join the war effort there. He never served overseas. I think he regretted that all of his adult life. This fact from his life may explain why I am alive.

The other, my father-in-law--Clyde Erwin, served in Europe after his basic training. He found himself caught up on the front lines during the historic Battle of the Bulge. He crossed Normandy beach six days after D-Day. He lost every man in two units as he fought his way across France and into Germany. He was blown off of a Jeep during one battle and nearly killed.

He told me on several occasions about Christmas Day 1944 when he and his fellows woke up buried in snow as they waited orders to continue forward toward what would be a German surrender. He spoke of the experience of liberating the concentration camps, of the smell of death and of the horrid condition of the people imprisoned in such inhumane places. He seldom spoke in great detail and he never accepted praise for his service. He always became emotional whenever he spoke of the war.

Both of these men are gone now. Both lived as men of peace, devoted to their families, their communities and the nation. Both were spiritual men of faith, integrity and honor. Both hated the notion of war. Both served as called on by their nation. Both were models in every way for me.

I miss them both, every day. Today I'm thankful for their lives, their service and their honorable devotion to their nation and to the values of our democracy and to freedom for everyone.


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