Be Part of The Solution

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Shine: A Woman Of Purpose

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Be Part of The Solution

“Find your own Calcutta.” – Mother Theresa

Your journey to purpose is bigger than your personal needs. Your life on purpose is a gift to mankind. As you discover your role in the God’s grand design, I adjure you to be part of the solution for humanity. I trust that you will have a special affinity for the poor and those who are suffering. Your life of purpose can make a difference in your family, your community, and the world.

The Plight of Youths Today

One of the causes close to my heart is the plight of youths today. The #1 Problem facing youth today is discouragement (the same boulder that blocked many of our own roads). They carry some memory or worse – memories, of an epic D – Day (or of multiple D – Days) – the day or days they were told in either word(s) OR deed(s), that “IT” cannot be done or it cannot be done by them specifically. The “IT” changes and how impossibility is framed also varies (from innocent lack of resources to malicious attack) though D – Days have lasting impact – which can even span generations. D – Days can result from misunderstanding(s), misdirection(s), mistakes(s), and mal intention(s), ignorance(s), and innocence(s). This variability is what makes discouragement so difficult to combat. Discouragements can even breed from the cycle of failure and be motivated by our pure goal to help youth “do better than we did.” Unfortunately, when we too have not found our highest self-actualization (when we are not fulfilling our own life purpose), we may give instead of a “you can do it” response, rather the “I tried that and it (did not) doesn’t work so you will have to do something else” reaction to innovation and the classic “genius before their time.” This reflex harms our future generation even when our heart’s intentions are good.

We can solve the problem of discouragement. We have to understand though, that the solution is not to single out youth for a hope intervention – and do nothing else.

WE ALL NEED HOPE

Hope can live and be planted with life investors – people who invest their life energy in mentorship, apprenticeship, financial and spiritual support, to discover and nourish the talents seeded by their Creator – and to develop those rather than trying to make others into what we want them to be – because that may not have been the Master Plan – and if we continue to force stars into rectangles, we may build a wall of every generation, but soon the mortar is unbalanced, since we will likely break something in the process (be it laws of mental health or some other form of order) when a star’s points become “flat edges” and after a generation of building one wall – the previous keeps falling down when finally the starry “points” are understood and grieved for. This is a brokenness that tortures millions of youth, who often become broken adults. Guidance, boundaries, and leadership do not require squelching potential. They need us (everyone else – not just the “perfect people” – even the fallen stars who got back up (which requires the bandage of hope from those who do not require such “first aid”)) to BE CREATIVE in responding to this problem. We already know that depression, hunger (natural and spiritual), and suicide are at all time highs. We have to see that they need us as much as WE NEED THEM. There is no one-size fits all solution. We have to expand our vision and help them to achieve their dreams instead of coaching them to change their dreams to fit “reality” – because the reality is : Nothing is Impossible – the first thing we have to do is start believing that ourselves – and since many of us have been attacked by the same D – Days that plague so many youth, WE NEED EACH OTHER.

This Way To Calcutta

When you live on purpose, the excuse of not doing something extraordinary because you don’t have a big budget is no longer a valid argument. God does not have to send everyone to a foreign [in reference to where they now stand] country. Mother Teresa said, “Find your own Calcutta.” Business men and women say, “Find a need and fill it.” Even in the world there is sometimes a consensus on how to make progress. Yet, the tradition of doing things the same way because that’s the way they have always been done – even if they are not effective, is often allowed still to erode kingdom work. You can be a part of the solution for the world. Begin with you. Your Calcutta could be right outside your front door. If not, you’ve got to start exercising – your faith like potatoes (If you haven’t seen that movie, watch it. If you’ve seen it. Watch it again.) and dig deeper.