Let’s keep the brightness in our eyes

By Jeff Becraft

Back in my final year of Youth Corps, when I was phasing out and turning Youth Corps over to other people, I didn’t know the students as well. But there was one student that I do very much remember. This student had a great attitude.

Standing up and speaking in front of the group, though, was a challenge for her. She would kind of freeze up and really struggle and had a tough time getting her words out. Now, what impressed me about this student is that every time I saw her get up in front of the group and speak, she never gave up. You could tell it was a real wrestling match for her but she would continue to stand there and press on. (How many people do not even want to stand up in front of a group?)

But she wouldn’t try and then just give up and sit down. No… she would wrestle and wrestle and wrestle till she got out what she wanted to say and then she would sit down. What was even more impressive is that the look on her face never changed. She would still have the brightness in her eyes, she would still have the same smile on her face, and time and again, I was so inspired by her.  I would go up and encourage her afterwards and tell her how great that really was and what a great example she was to everyone around her.

I fumble and bumble over my words on a regular basis. In fact, sometimes my tongue gets caught in my eye teeth and I can’t see what I’m saying. But this young student was so inspiring to me.

We all have imperfections. And we should not allow the imperfections in our lives to stop us from giving our best or even to change the look on our faces. Too often we hide our faces or hang our heads in shame (as though it is shameful to have imperfections or weaknesses… or that we don’t measure up). Now, there are things that we do wrong that we should feel guilty about. In fact, if we are doing things that are wrong and we don’t feel guilty about it, then that’s when there’s a real problem. But too often, we allow the imperfections to shape our attitudes and shape our feelings about ourselves, and we hang our heads.

This student didn’t do that… she continued to hold her head up and smile and she was such an inspiring person to be around.

Recently at Our Place of Hope, someone had just mentioned in one of our morning meetings, “I just feel like giving up.” They weren’t talking about giving up on life or anything of that magnitude. It was just some sort of project or something else that they were working on, and they just said, “I just feel like giving up.” One of our other members, who is also blind, said, “Ahh, no man… you can’t ever give up.” What an inspiring moment that was.

When we are facing situations… and it’s not going smoothly… let’s keep the brightness in our eyes and the smile on our face… and never give up.

Jeff Becraft is the Director of Our Place of Hope and the Director Emeritus for Youth Corps and has dedicated much of his life to helping shift the vision of people’s lives. Our Place of Hope is a paradigm shift for people living with mental illness that encourages them to regain meaning, purpose, and hope for their lives. You can connect with Jeff at  [email protected].