Small Signs of Encouragement

Today I was scheduled to give a speech at another non-profit community service agency. This agency has a program geared to youths with troubled pasts and aims to give them a fresh start in finding a career, and I was supposed to give a "movivational speech". All morning I was debating whether to go or not because I could barely get two words out without coughing up a lung. Finally I decided: "Okay, I'll go give the talk, and the go stright home to rest."

As soon as I was brought into the room, I could tell it was a tough crowd. At least when I used to speak in churches, people would "pretend" to be interested. Here, folks feel no such obligation. The indifference in the room was so real that you could almost reach out and touch it. But...strangely enough, I found myself "liking" it. It was...honest.

I talked about various things to try and find something that would capture at least a bit of interest. It was a classic case of "throw everything at the wall and see what sticks". (political sidebar: kind of like the McCain campaign these days...political sidebar over) Towards the end, I decided to look them in the eye and said, "The truth is, where you came from, what you had done, what led you here means absolutely zero now. You are in a place where you CAN start fresh. Whether this leads anywhere, is up to you." As I said that, one of the youth gave a good slap to his friends sitting next to him who had slept through my whole talk, to try to wake him up to hear what I was saying.

I don't know why, but that made my day. You'd think after doing this for so many years, stuff like this don't matter anymore. But I guess I found out again that none of us ever out grow our need to be encouraged, even by the smallest gestures. I just hope I have done the same for at least a couple of them this afternoon.