just read: Making the Impossible Possible

I love books! Books are my favorite gift to give. Books are my favorite gift to receive. Of all the things we've had to liquidate in this move, the hardest for me to let go of was my book collection. My dream house will have a room of floor to ceiling books with a chair for me to sit in and read, I'm willing to compromise and even take a corner of a room.

Every year for my brother's birthday I send him a book. Usually, it is my favorite book I read that year. Recently, for no particular reason at all, my brother sent me a book with a very thoughtful inscription.

The book is titled: Making the Impossible Possible. It is about one man's journey to overcome poverty from inner city Philedalphia. What I love about his story is that he didn't have to leave his neighborhood to overcome his circumstance. Rather, he had to change his mindset. He changed how he viewed himself and what he had to offer the world.

I work with those suffering in deplorable conditions of poverty around the globe and what I've found is that poverty has less to do with resources available and more to do with a belief about oneself. Poverty is bondage. Poverty is overwhelming. Poverty is depressing. Poverty can be handed down from one generation to another. But, poverty can be overcome no matter how bad it originally seems. How? Well, I can tell you that in my experience it doesn't happen by throwing mass amounts of money at the problem. Rather, it starts by challenging people to see their life differently. Bill Strickland creates moments of beauty as a motivator to individuals to make a better life for themselves. In my work we ask them to see themselves as children of a living God who created each individual for a unique purpose. I believe to the core of my being that each person on earth has something beautiful to offer the world, it just often goes untapped.

To me, Bill's story is an encouragement and inspiration, not for the obvious reasons of what he's accomplished, but, rather because he was able to accomplish such success in his own neighborhood by changing how he viewed himself. His circumstances didn't change, but his perspective did.

Do you believe poverty is the product of a resource deficit, or a lack of a solid foundation in the world? I believe the latter and my work is aimed at providing that foundation as a launching point for a new life.