The Generosity Series: 6

[A Former User]

Hope
I know many of us feel like the world is at a loss, and no one is going to sit down to fix it. That feeling of hopelessness in humility leaves us concerned about our future. The people who live life with hope always have two things in common: they believe the future can be better than the past, and they can do something today to bring about a better future. That hope for the growth of the world will bring so much generosity in us if we use that hope and dream to do something good.

I once knew this guy in middle school who was considered that bad kid, if you will. No one really liked him understandably, but I was always nice to him. He had started hanging around me, and I think I was pretty fond of his interesting snarky attitude. He never seemed to do very many good things… hence his terrible reputation. After that school year, suddenly something changed. He had this switch that went off, and it honestly still amazes me to this day. One school lunch, he sat with someone to comfort their loneliness. He encouraged them to have hope for the rest of their school year. That following week, the school had an assembly where he was granted a scholarship of generosity for his act of kindness. Maybe you won’t get lucky like that guy, but you don’t need a scholarship for me to tell you how much your generosity means.

Not very many people had hope for this kid to change his ways, but somewhere, it was there. I sometimes think about him, and I’m so grateful to hear about these little stories where people are rewarded for having hope in others. Even if no one had hope in them.