Dreams Can Turn Into Disaster
***The following is an excerpt from my book, Unlikely Good.
Our communities need people who will sound the alarm on the urgency of the moment. The streets are swallowing kids and generations whole with their violence and hopelessness.
I will never forget a boy named Derek from our Saturday night basketball games at the Y. Derek was a nice kid, just like Gus, and a regular on Saturday evening.
I recall seeing in the news that Derek’s father was murdered in the city. The following week, Derek was at basketball, and I quietly approached him to check how he was doing. He acted unfazed, as if losing a dad to violence was a regular occurrence.
Perhaps it is a coping mechanism, but seeing violence so frequently in their neighborhood makes young men hardened. It takes the repeated, senseless violence of the streets to convince boys to refuse to weep over their murdered fathers. Repeat exposure normalizes violence and likely leads young men to continue the cycle.
It was deeply moving, at a recent Logos Academy graduation, when I heard Jose’s story. Like Derek, Jose’s father was killed by local gun violence. But the loving community at Logos Academy kept Jose from becoming hardened. In his own words, Jose testified,
"In high school, I attended a Christian school where I really grew and thrived. We regularly get to discuss the gospel, Christianity, and the way that the Bible affects world issues. During the summer going into my junior year, God began working in me. He gave me a softer heart. The more I understood about Jesus’ forgiveness for me, the more I was able to forgive people from my past who had wronged me. In college, I want to continue learning in a community of believers that prioritizes learning, accountability, community, and service."
On the streets, it seems improbable that boys like Jose develop a soft heart. Unlikely Good doesn’t have to be a wish dream.
*** End of chapter excerpt
Not every person or organization that sets out to reach and support kids like Derek and Jose will succeed.
Why is that? Is it not enough to be passionate? To have a few friends with money to get your org started? Won’t people jump to action once you start sounding the alarm?
Over the years, I have seen dreams succeed and fall apart. In mission-driven work, there are at least five common pitfalls that can turn a dream into a nightmare:
Failing to care. This happens when leaders fail to create a sense of urgency about the problem they are attempting to solve. You might call it the enemy of indifference. The problem you are tackling is not new and will likely resist efforts to change it.
Failing to network. Lone rangers will struggle to drive the kind of deep system change our communities need. Working in isolation rather than building a coalition will likely cause your cause to fizzle out over time.
Failing to focus. Once you plunge into community work, you will realize there is a lot to be done. If you fail to operate from a defined, strategic vision, you will spread people and financial resources too thin and fail to gain traction.
Failing to discern. If you implement ideas too quickly without properly vetting them, you risk chasing new ideas instead of completing strategic ones. This often happens in nonprofits that are constantly chasing new revenue in each new round of grant funding.
Failing to limit. Do not be afraid to grow slowly, to become really proficient at a couple of strategic programs. Impatience can tempt you to push your cause to grow faster than it can sustain.
Jose’s story shows us that longevity and time matter with kids who experience trauma.
What Derek needed was not a carousel of new programs, but the consistency of people who would show up in his life.
Jose will likely survive the streets thanks to long-standing relationships. I don’t know where Derek is today, but I pray that he eventually finds what made a difference to Jose.
Unlikely Good does not have to be a wish dream. We can build the kinds of communities that help young people develop soft hearts, strong character, and hopeful futures. But leaders will have to pay careful attention to the common traps that can turn dreams into disasters.
