Rescue Mission Blog

Thankfulness is Developed

  

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Many people are anxiously awaiting Thanksgiving, believing that they'll settle down on Thanksgiving eve and, in quiet reflection, be thankful.  What a wonderful picture it would be, sitting by a fireplace, a tummy full of food and surrounded by friends and family, reflecting on all that you've been blessed with.  While a few people may experience thankfulness like receiving a special delivery from Netflix, my experience is that thankfulness is developed, on the inside and through struggle, investment and care and concern for others, rather than just a moment in time.

Thankfulness is develop in a following ways:

1. Loving and Serving Others. Volunteer your time, serve others who are in need.  Provide food and meals for those you know who are hungry and in need, or call an elderly friend or family member and schedule a visit to sit and talk.  Don't serve with any agenda other than to put others first.

2.  Verbally praise and encourage those who are lonely, hurting and discouraged.  If you're goal is to encourage others, you'll be surprised how many people you'll notice in your day that are in need of words of praise, who need to be lifted up.  The holidays aren't any exception.  In fact, they're more stressful for many, so look for ways to say something nice, lighten someone's burden.  My mentor Fulton Buntain used to always tell me, "everyone you meet is carrying a burden".  I believe that's true. 

3.  Look for Blessings.  As we near Thanksgiving, and every day, look for the little ways that life is rewarding, sweet, and pleasant.  Don't just look at the challenges, but savor the special events, no matter who small, and be thankful.  You'll be amazed at how many little blessings there are in each day, even a "bad day", when you begin to look and search for the tiny encouragements.

Don't just wait for Thankfulness to arrive like a delivery from a stork, go out and develop it.  

David Curry

Give Thanks! How Giving Emergency Food Builds Gratitude

  

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The fall and winter bring about striking changes in the life of the poor and hungry.  What to many is a wonderful change of season, to others is a challenge of survival. That's why the Rescue Mission and other great food banks like Salvation Army and Emergency Food Network work hard and begin to ring the bell to let the community know that this is the season to clean out your canned foods, to donate to the charity of your choice and make a difference in the lives of those who are hungry and hurting.

 But it's more than just about emergency food, it's also about what happens within you when you give.  Giving builds an attitude of thankfulness.  Whether you are giving just a few dollars, or doing estate planning, a car donation, or giving a turkey for Thanksgiving, or volunteering, you are developing a perspective of blessing in your life.

How and why does giving bless you? Why do we always feel better when we are serving?

1. Focusing on Ourselves is Boring. So often we feel lethargic and disappointed with life because we are focusing on our own problems and expectations.  When we focus on serving and giving life becomes more interesting. You never know who you'll meet and how you'll impact someone else's life.  

2. Waiting for Someone to Bless You is Boring. Often we don't feel gratitude because our expectation is that someone needs to be serving and blessing us. We wait and wait for people to notice OUR needs, take care of OUR expectations.  BORING! Turn that around and give and serve others this Thanksgiving and you'll be thrilled to see how great things begin to happen in your own life.

3. Hoarding our Blessings is Depressing. You can't get excited about what you have if all you're doing is trying not to lose it.  That's a recipe for a sad life. Instead, take the little you've got and share it with others. Almost everyone has something to give: Time, Canned Food, frozen turkey, money.  If all you're trying to do is hold on, your grip will get tired and your life will seem small.  

When you start to spread your wings and get out of your ruts this Thanksgiving you'll develop a a grateful attitude.  

Hit the links of these great organizations and see who you can bless others this Thanksgiving:

Salvation Army

Emergency Food Network

Rescue Mission

David Curry

Beauty, Creativity, Non-Profit Leadership.

  

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Recently I ran across a devotional that my wife had sent me from John and Stassi Elderidge.  It was on the subject of Beauty, and I thought I would share it with you.

This issue comes up regularly in my work because:

1. Most Shelters/Rescue Missions are old, smelly and dirty

2. The Rescue Mission is striving to create uniquely beautiful places that inspire and encourage life transformation.

3. Whenever you spend resources/time on beauty, people will critique.

For these reasons, I like to regularly encourage our team and other non-profit leaders to think about beauty.

Here's the devotional that I found so thoughtful:

Beauty and Affliction

Simone Weil was absolutely right-beauty and affliction are the only two things that can pierce our hearts. Because this is so true, we must have a measure of beauty in our lives proportionate to our affliction. No, more. Much more. Is this not God's prescription for us? Just take a look around. The sights and sounds, the aromas and sensations-the world is overflowing with beauty. God seems to be rather enamored with it. Gloriously wasteful. Apparently, he feels that there ought to be plenty of it in our lives. 

I am at a loss to say what I want to say regarding beauty. Somehow, that is as it ought to be. Our experience of beauty transcends our ability to speak about it, for its magic lies beyond the power of words. 

I want to speak of beauty's healing power, of how it comforts and soothes, yet also how it stirs us, how it moves and inspires. All that sounds ridiculous. You know your own experiences of beauty. Let me call upon them then. Think of your favorite music, or tapestry, or landscape. "We have had a couple of inspiring sunsets this week." A dear friend sent this in an e-mail: "It was as if the seams of our atmosphere split for a bit of heaven to plunge into the sea. I stood and applauded . . . simultaneously I wanted to kneel and weep." Yes-that's it. All I want to do is validate those irreplaceable moments, lift any obstacle you may have to filling your life with greater and greater amounts of beauty. 

We need not fear indulging here. The experience of beauty is unique to all the other pleasures in this: there is no possessive quality to it. Just because you love the landscape doesn't mean you have to acquire the real estate. Simply to behold the flower is enough; there is nothing in me that wants to consume it. Beauty is the closest thing we have to fullness without possessing on this side of eternity. It heralds the Great Restoration. Perhaps that is why it is so healing-beauty is pure gift. It helps us in our letting go. 

Why EVERYONE Should Turn Off Their Email For 2hrs a Day.

  

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Everyone should turn off their email for at least two hours a day. Non-profit leaders, houswives, students, professors, everyone. How did I arrive at this conclusion? How can I dare to speak this heresy?

Back when I was a young kid, we used to have to walk down our driveway to check the mail box for a post.  On the rare occasion that I had the expectation that something might be coming in the mail, I would sit at the front window and look for the postman.  I would jump up regularly and go down and open the mailbox and look to see if it had arrived yet.  In my young mind, it seemed like the more I looked at the box, the quicker it would come.  Email has become a modern day version of this ritual for many.

Clearly I don't understand how busy you are, and how important it is that you have access to your email 24/7, but here's the problem: Email, which many people believe is the height of productivity, is actually getting in the way of being productive for many people.  The constant instant access of email, the temptation to check to see if you have email, the misguided notion that email is the most productive form of work you could be doing, and the feeling that if you write lots of email you've gotten a lot done, all lead us to be tied up with the emotion of email.

Try this experiment:

1. Turn off the email function on your phone for two hours each day.  Not just any two hours, but the two hours when you're likely to be at your mental peak.  If you're a morning person, do it then, if an evening person, do likewise.  

2. Turn off the sound function on your computer email. That little "bing" has turned you into one of Pavlov's dogs.  When you hear the sound you stop all the work you're doing and deal with the email.

3. Pick 3 or 4 times a day to respond to email.  For me, I try to answer emails at the folllowing times. 5:30am, 9:30am, 1pm, 5pm.  In between those times I turn off my email, dont' look at it and just put my head down and work.

Are you addicted to your email? Is there some reason you can't cut the leash? Let me know what you think.

David Curry

Should You Hire Standout Volunteers?

  

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Years ago, when I was first getting started in leadership, I was given a piece of advice, "Don't hire volunteers".  The rational was clear, if you hire a volunteer, then you are effectively paying for something that you used to get for free.  Plus, then all the other volunteers will start to think they'll be hired, which will create problems.  

Looking back now, I can see how wrong-headed that kind of thinking is, but I think lots of leaders still hold onto this theory.

I've gone the opposite direction: I look first to standout volunteers when needing to fill a position. Here's why:

1.  Compatibility: Ideally you already have seen the way they work with others and how they best function.

2.  Passion: My philosophy has always been to work 100% regardless of what you're being paid, but a volunteer has already told you they've got enough passion to do the job for the love of it.

3.  Culture: one of the hardest parts of starting a new job is adjusting to a new culture.  The volunteer has already observed the culture from a distance and knows what he/she is getting into.  For better and worse.

4.  Reward: I'm a firm believer that we should reward the kinds of behaviors we want to see repeated.  I love that people volunteer, we've had 6000 of them in the past 12 months, and I can't help but think it's an encouragement when they know that sometimes we hire a standout volunteer.

I know that this concept flies in the face of some long held beliefs, what do you think? Is it a problem to hire standout volunteers?

David Curry