Let Our Goodness Flow

I have been writing regular questions on the whiteboard near the gym at Shechem over the past couple of weeks. I grab members walking by and get them to answer questions like “what is belonging”, “what does it mean to be in your flourishing zone” or “who is one person who you look up to”. For me, it has sparked a lot of really good conversations and brought some joy to my day. 

Today I wrote, “when you’re feeling down, how do you want to be supported?” 

My first three answers, all from 20 year old men, surprised me. 2 of 3 went something like, “I want to be left alone. I can support myself”. The last was that somebody would want money. It created space for conversation and reframing (the point of the questions in the first place), but the knee jerk reactions bummed me out.

Don’t you want somebody to check in on you? Pray for you? Be near to you? An encourager, to remind you to keep going. Somebody to help you problem solve. Somebody to acknowledge that what you’re going through simply sucks. 

These are all guys who come here for community. I know that about them. 

When do you start externalizing the things you feel internally? When do you start believing what you’re feeling? When do you accept that change has been made in you- that you no longer have to do life the way you’ve been doing it before?

I pray for our young men, God. That they don’t feel like they have to do life alone. That they can rely on others, trust others. I pray that our members receive support when they need support. I pray that our members experience authenticity in community. I pray that our members don’t wear a facade in hopes of maintaining the status quo, appeasing their peers or their own egos. 

Our Homes member, TC, recently did a video for another organization. He said something like, “If you're full of love, there is no shame in showing you are full of love”. I pray our young members let their goodness flow out of them in the same way. 

Amen,

Kendall