Projecting a Bright and Hopeful Future for Others

                Last month I joined Facebook.  Some days I wonder why I made that decision, especially when scrolling through some of the partisan, conflicted, political and religious views from The Right, The Left, The Middle, and Those Who Act Smarter Than Everyone Else!  It can be a bit wearisome and I am sure my Gamecock posts have wearied more than a few too.  So, some justified self-criticism is only fair game sometimes!  Other days I get to wish “Happy Birthday” to a friend or to catch up with old friends by seeing the family, pictures and posts about what they like in life.  One of the neatest things that happened is connecting with my 6^th grade teacher Ms. Bruch from the best elementary school in the USA (Gulph Road Elementary in King of Prussia, PA).  Ms. Bruch (pronounced Brook) and I are now “Friends” on Facebook and she even follows me which is quite an honor for this once, wayward, smarter-than-the-teacher 6^th grader.  If I do the math correct, most 6^th graders are about 12 years old.  That was about 39 years ago for me.  It has been a delight to just know that Ms. Bruch wanted to be a friend on Facebook. I was emotionally moved and appreciated the act of her reaching out to me. Besides becoming Friends I really think she gave and received the greater gifts.  First, she gave the gift of “believing in me” even as a student who loved athletics way more than the subjects Math and English.  Back in 1974-75 she had enough hope, enough patience and enough faith (my words) to believe I would maybe become and do what God wanted me to do on this earth.  Secondly, she now has the gift of seeing how her work and patience paid off.  That says more about her steadfastness, courage, and patience to teach than it does anything about me.

                So, in life, we have the task of encouraging, challenging and believing in others before they believe in themselves.  Just recently I visited a person who was in physical pain from an incident that happened to him.  I could tell he was in deep pain.  He wanted me to pray for him and I did. I prayed that his pain would be less and that he would be able to move and live again in the future where he was not a patient and would be healed enough to get back to his baseline functioning.  I wanted him to know that I believed for him that better days were ahead.    As a chaplain and minister and I want to be a hope-bearer to those who need and want to see a bright future even though some days are hard and difficult and even hope-less.  All of us can be hope-bearers.  We can believe in others before they believe in themselves.  We can believe for them before they believe it for themselves.  Thank goodness Ms. Bruch did that for me.  My vocation continues to call me to give that same hope to others.   Thank goodness for healthcare workers who believe that others will heal, even before the person sometimes believes it.  It sure would help if God could infuse me with the patience, courage and faith of 6^th grade teachers like Ms. Bruch too.  That surely wouldn’t hurt!  Amen.

Dear God: Help me to be bearer of hope when others can’t find hope or have lost hope.  Amen.