Finding the Way Back
We barrow a wise quote from Sir Winston Churchill who said, “You make a living by what you get; but you make a life by what you give.” A brief biography Evidence about the goodness that comes from good people is all around us; but we wanted to focus on one particular place where we know this is true.
We met a humble young man named Kyle this week who told us, “You know, drug addicts are selfish people. With me, it was all about me-myself-and-I all the time. Let me say myself a few more times with that. And I didn’t know it grabbed me so hard. But this place is showing me that I can look past myself again and think about others in my life and not just me.” Kyle’s former claim-to-fame was his life as a very successful university sports star; but drug abuse took over, and everything was over for him.
Kyle’s friend, Brandon, commented on his own journey when he said, “The hardest thing for me right now is remembering all of the people I hurt for my need for drugs. I robbed them, I cheated them, and I am finding it very hard to forgive myself for all of that hurt I caused. I’m writing letters to them to ask for forgiveness. I have a lot of letters to write, but I’m healing.”
We mention this because we had a wonderful opportunity this week to share a Christmas Lunch with the City Gospel Mission in Cincinnati, Ohio on December 13th. The gentlemen we met were absolutely inspirational to us, as they shared their personal stories about their discovery-and-recovery process of finding solutions to battle their overpowering drug addictions. We plan to have lunch with them on a quarterly basis. While we only met with the men in the program, City Gospel Mission also serves women. Families in the community benefit from this charitable organization throughout the year, and CGM “graduates” can begin to positively contribute again to society. These transformations are something that can bring happy tears to our eyes! Goals and life-long dreams are awakening in these young men, and that is exciting!
Remarkable, isn’t it? Remarkable because they are taking personal responsibility to journey through their individual darkness, and walking by the light of a small local organization that has a lot of big hearts to help them along a brighter and happier path!
Perhaps we can harshly judge the lifestyles of others and conclude that they have walked too far past a “point of no return” according to our own opinions; but we want to applaud professionals and volunteers everywhere who recognize the little glimmer of light that lingers deep behind the eyes of sorrow who only need someone to believe in them again. It’s amazing that the biggest renewals of hope can be ignited from the smallest sparks from sincere kind gestures from a willing heart with helping hands. The offering of a lift upward can help people move forward. Our AGI team feels very blessed to be a part of their support, because doing so exemplifies our company’s three Core Values of integrity, relationship-focus, and humble service. You can read more about our Core Values here.
Please take a moment and explore City Gospel Mission’s website and their Facebook page so you can see what we already know as being the gospel of Christ in action!
Note: We didn’t use the real names of Kyle and Brandon; but they really exist as hopeful young men who are happy to be part of the City Gospel Mission Program.
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