Team Hope!

We wear messages around our wrists, both to remind us of a person or of a cause that we support, and to witness to those around us about what matters most to us.  In grade school it was a friendship bracelet, woven of various strands that braided together the hearts of little girls.  The bracelet of my teen years was the Viet Nam POW/MIA bracelet, remembering and praying.  In the 1990’s, it was a WWJD bracelet, asking What Would Jesus Do, the life-changing question raised in Charles Sheldon’s book In His Steps.   Over the years we’ve worn silicone bracelets in the colors of our favorite cause, in the hues of school spirit, and to proclaim our faith.  Now, Ashland County residents will be sporting blue bands around our wrists, signifying that we are a member of Team Hope, this year’s focus for the United Way campaign.

In the battle for hearts and lives that Team Hope fights daily in the United Way partner agencies that serve our community, the adversaries are stealthy.  There’s no one menacing opponent in the boxing ring, no eye-to-eye contact with the enemy in a goal-line stand.  The forces and circumstance that challenge hope sneak up on us, often starting as deficits in childhood that persist in adulthood, and sometimes are exasperated by self-inflicted wounds.  At other times, the attack is random and catastrophic – a fire, an accident, a pink slip, a dreaded diagnosis.  But however they come, they hit hard, threatening to overwhelm our brothers and sisters who lack the resources to handle them.    

                My first published book was entitled The Heartwork of Hope.  As I sat at the United Way campaign kick-off breakfast on Thursday, I kept thinking about that title.  I worked for 34 years in Salvation Army ministry that believes in the heartwork of hope, the spiritual journey with its works of faith, confession, repentance, and service to others.  Yet I was struck by a similar phrase vying for my attention– the hard work of hope. 

                Hope is hard work.  For someone battling depression, it’s hard work to get out of bed and face the day.  It’s hard work for the unemployed to beat the pavement (or the internet )in search of a job that can feed your family.  And it’s hard work to hope for a better tomorrow when the doors of today are slammed in your face.

The people of Ashland get that.  We know that some of our neighbors struggle every day, working hard to hold onto a thread of hope.  That’s why the staff and volunteers of United Way work hard all year to raise funds and to increase awareness of the needs of people in Ashland County. 

If I’ve discovered one thing since moving to Ashland six years ago, it’s that Ashlanders are not afraid of hard work.  If it helps our brothers and sisters, we’ll lug boxes, plant seeds, wait on tables, rake leaves, read to children, test-drive cars, grill Wonder dogs, and even decorate Christmas trees.  And yes, we’ll give sacrificially as well to keep that hope alive. 

At the kickoff breakfast, the Samaritan Regional Health System team was courageous in naming the charter members of the opposing team: despair and apathy.   Be on notice, you two: as Team Hope members, we’re calling you out.  Team Despair – we know you try your best to get us to lose hope but we’re refusing to give in.  Team Apathy – we’re not joining up.  We’re committed to care about our sisters and brothers.  We’re not willing to slink around our community with our eyes to the ground, being bullied by despair and refusing to look hope in the face.  We’re donning our Live United T-shirts, stretching the Team Hope bracelets around our wrists, and taking up the challenge.   Team Hope!  Team Hope!

It’s who we are as people in community.  As we live and work together, we can be a community where, as the Samaritan volunteers proclaimed, “despair and apathy don’t get a second chance. “   One donut, one dime, one dollar, one donation at a time.