Work with Teens is one of the 4 key priorities for our YMCA. In our plan we want to do monumental and transformational work with our young people. So we need heroes to step forward. As I thought about heroes I came across a definition of hero from Andy Stanley, pastor at North Point Community Church in Atlanta. Stanley says, “a hero is someone who has clarity in a situation. They eliminate the fog. And then they have the irresistible urge to act on that clarity.”
I love the word irresistible. CLARITY – IRRESISTAVBLE URGE TO ACT!
A few summers back I pulled together a group of teens for lunch and we had a focus group on what teens need and want and also discussed the future of the Y. I needed this information as our Y develops a long-range plan. Toward the end of the meeting this young girl asked what my vision was.
I talked about teen only facilities where they could come and hang out with friends and be safe. Where we would have exercise equipment that would be high tech and would encourage them to exercise. I talked about mentors and programs that would teach teens life skills and develop positive assets and build self-esteem.
The teens asked when I thought this would happen. I told them it would be part of our long-range plan so probably in the next 3 or 4 years.
This young girl looked up at me with her big brown eyes and said, Mr. Corder, “I don’t have 3 or 4 years.”
This girl was right; she doesn’t have 3 or 4 years. Many of our teens live in neighborhoods where it’s just common to drop out of high school and have babies at 16. Their lives become more like prisons rather than places where dreams take root. They live in poverty and their neighborhoods are dead or are dying – their hope is dying. Something is wrong with this picture, and these kids need heroes.
We need to have the ability to create first class programs and facilities to these kids. We don’t have three or four years. But we do have our hearts, our minds and our hands..and if we work together we can change the world.
Can you see the clarity? Can you feel this irresistible urge to act?
Go be a hero!
