Hope

Gun’s Quote-of-the-Week:

“The world will go to Hell on the backs of men who said, ‘it’s not my place.’”
-Joel Stepanek

The lights dimmed. The audience of a couple thousand silenced, including the 900 17-year-old men who had just stayed a full week at the University of Central Missouri. Then a trumpet broke the silence and goosebumps would rise on the backs of all who were there. The stirring sounds of “Taps” will do that to you. In the UCM Multipurpose building, after a week filled with a blur of activity – that once again was all-too-short – the reality that the 79^th session of Missouri Boys State was closing dawned on all who were there.

After the last note’s echo silenced, you could hear the sniffle, the occasional whimper and a pin drop. It was finished.

It was this year that I realized a number of things that were different from years’ past. This year, I was double their age. This year, nobody who attended Boys State was born in the 90s. This year, none of them remembered 9/11. This year, I would have spent more Junes of my life at Boys State than not. I have spent over half of my life on Staff.

It seems a little rarer these days; perhaps being an adult with a stable job just means I meet less new people and thus explain my life’s greatest joys a little less often. On occasion, however, I get to answer the question, “What do you do?”

“By day or by night?”

This always causes a puzzled look. Most people simply assume by the gray hair that I shouldn’t be the one to have two jobs. I quickly explain: “I’m an engineer by occupation, but I work with teenagers on the weekends and during the summer.”

The “teenager” comment catches almost all off guard. “Do you like that?”

“I’d rather spend time with teenagers than adults,” I would respond, “because teenagers are more open, yearn more for the truth and aren’t cynical about the future. They give me hope.”

My greatest privilege is being able to share with teenagers how God intended for them to love and care for the people around them. In the case of Missouri Boys State, giving these young men the tools and confidence to go forth and lead their communities is my greatest joy each summer. Helping young men understand that they have a responsibility – that they have a place – is an obligation that I take very seriously each and every third week of June.

The world is replete with examples of darkness and evil. We still haven’t figured out some of the most vexing issues of our day. Racism is real. Poverty is real. Human trafficking is real. We live in a time when we are confused by something as basic as gender and skew some of the most elementary tenants of truth. It may seem more often than not that the world is going to Hell.

Perhaps changing the lives of 900 men is a drop in the bucket of the overall population of the US, let alone the world. Even so, that’s 900 men who now know that it is their place to make better communities, better families, a better state, a better country and – dare I say – a better world. 

Hopefully, that’s 900 men who will never say, “It’s not my place.”

THAT gives me hope.

...and that’s why it’s a Gun’s Quote!!