Fire For Hope

Look me in the eyes…

Moments are precious. Each passing second occurs never to be found again, yet always leaves a legacy that we rarely stop and see. We waste seconds like we have an endless supply of them. We love to talk about making them count, but allow distractions, apathy, and excuses to rob them and silence their worth. Selfishness is a predator that attacks our time and feeds on the moments that are only of value to us. If it puts us in a better position, if it benefits us in some way, if it makes us more comfortable, then we’re willing to take full advantage of those moments. We need to realize, selfishness is a liar. To think that our life is worth more than anothers’ is a fallacy that just adds more darkness to the world when we were made to be a light. Seconds are valuable, and each one should add life to ourselves and others. I’m not talking about the life of stuff and false pleasures as the world would want us to think. I’m talking about life that speaks hope, truth and love. Life that is humble, genuine, and pure. Life that is REAL. Life that can only truly be found and received through the source that created it. Life through Jesus Christ. 

It is only when we fully realize that our seconds are written by Him and for Him, that we throw selfishness to the side, and meet every moment with the question; is this adding to life or taking from it….or in better words…does this glorify God or fall empty into the darkness? What we do in the moments He has blessed us with matter! Every second matters!

The question is, what will we let dictate our moments…selfishness or surrender? Surrender yields life where selfishness robs from it. Just recently, my soon-to-be-brother-in-law found himself with an opportunity. While many drive passed the homeless and down-on-their-luck, he stopped, choosing to make his seconds count. Upon doing so, he came face to face with a man that society has placed so many labels on, and looked him straight in the eyes and saw a person with different circumstances, but with just as much breath in his lungs as himself or anyone else. All they did was talk. A real, genuine talk where he was able to speak love, truth, and hope to this man…not for any selfish motive but to speak life to someone that the world tries to rob it from. My brother-in-law doesn’t know what long-term impact that short interaction will have, but he doesn’t have to. He just wanted to make his seconds count. He was surrendered not to his will, but to Gods. He didn’t do it out of selfishness or for his own fulfillment, but in humility recognizing that he is no better than anyone else (Philippians 2:3), and everyone matters to God (John 3:16). He loves us all so dearly (Romans 8:38-39) and has given each one of us life for a purpose, we just have to choose to find it. In the same way, God blesses us each day with seconds that have purpose attached to every tick of the clock, and again, we have to choose what to do with those seconds. Are we going to hold onto them and waste them or are we going to look each moment in the eyes and see its worth, and surrender, not to our will, but to God’s? Maybe it’s an encounter with a homeless man, maybe it’s a conversation with a co-worker or family member. Maybe it’s sacrificing resources or a weekend to impact someone else. Maybe it’s reaching out to someone who is hurting, buying someone groceries, or visiting with someone who is lonely. You just never know what opportunity each second will present you with, but God does, and through the surrender of ourselves, we start to understand more and more that every second matters. Let’s make them count.

-R

We are still here…

It’s been a while since we’ve had life on this site but we want to make everyone fully aware that we still exist and are preparing for something amazing to take place. We’ve taken the last several months off, to take a step back, and gain some perspective. When you’re trying to bring hope to a world that is in desperate need of it, you want to make sure that you do it the best that you possibly can. More importantly, you want to make sure you aren’t doing it by your own efforts and motives, but through patience, love, grace, mercy, selflessness and obedience. We are gaining renewed vision. A renewed passion. A renewed purpose. We are being patient in carrying this out and we hope that you will offer us your prayers and support as we continue to unwrap the layers to this mission of keeping hope alive. Be Blessed.

-R

It’s simple really…

We could come to this page and write a poetic and intuitive post to encourage you to change the world. We could suggest a years worth of lists to ignite the passion that sits within our souls. We could give you facts and figures to illustrate the world in which we live and the dire need for us to act. The thing is, there’s one thing that we all need to, scratch that, MUST do in order to see any change take place and transform lives. It’s simple really…LOVE. That’s what it is all about. Our words, our actions, our all MUST speak love. Anything different is robbing hope from the hopeless, healing from the broken, wisdom from the lost, life from all. We must speak love or we are just adding to the noise of a broken, hurting world that needs hope. Just love…always…love.

-R

Pre-Announcement Announcement or something like that…

It’s a new year here at Fire For Hope and we are so excited about seeing lives impacted and forever changed through your efforts. We are witnessing generations stepping up to take a stand against poverty, injustice, and circumstance. We are seeing passionate, selfless hearts burning with a desire to step beyond themselves in order to invest in others and provide them with hope. It is our desire to see cities and towns all over America forever transformed because a group of people within each one decided to step beyond themselves to meet needs with love and selflessness. It is this desire, to see cities and towns transformed by those that know them best, their own citizens, that has launched the plans for our first Fire For Hope tour.

We will be taking the art, music, and heart that is a part of every Fire For Hope event to cities and towns with the hope that we will be able to come along side other passionate people living in these communities in an effort to ignite change. We don’t know anything about these places, but their own people do. They know the heartbeat of their cities. They know the needs of their towns. We want to hear their stories, discover what their hearts break for, and come along side them and get our hands dirty to see real change take place where they feel like their communities need it most. Each stop isn’t just going to be a concert and art show. We want to hit the streets. We want to act. We want to love on the homeless. We want to mentor the misguided. We want to heal the broken. We want to bring justice to those battling injustice. We don’t just want to talk. We want to do.

Everywhere in this country, in every town, in every city, there are hearts burning to bring hope to others. We’re seeing it take place with our own eyes. It’s inspiring. It’s real and we want to make sure that we do everything that we possibly can to keep the fire burning. We are so excited because each stop is going to present opportunities for all of us to come together, ignite change, and then inspire others to join the movement. 

So, I guess this is a pre-announcement announcement. It’s not much, but we really wanted to let you all know what we’re up to. We are finalizing everything now and will officially announce all of the details within the next month or so!

We hope you all are having a great year so far. Keep loving. Keep giving. Keep believing.

Hope is alive. Let’s keep the fire burning.

-R

Love always wins…

At what point in our lives did we start to accept anger and hatred as a more common practice than love? At what point did violence suppress forgiveness? At what point did pride defeat understanding? When did we stop the childhood lessons of sharing, giving, and kindness, and adopt selfishness and greed as our main rule of thumb. At what point did we lose our way?

From a historical standpoint we have always turned our backs to love. History books are littered with injustice. We are taught to learn from history so that it never repeats itself, yet love taking a backseat to hate and selfishness continues to be on repeat with each generation. Why is it that love is the greatest human desire yet we refuse to embrace it and let it infiltrate our thoughts and actions? Instead, our eyes remain clouded by a concern only for ourselves. It’s the same reason a criminal shows no remorse for a crime they committed. It’s the same reason someone can honk their horn and shout expletives out the window when a person accidentally cuts in front of them in their car. It’s the same reason someone can stand by and watch a violent act and do nothing to intervene. It’s the same reason we can deny someone on the other side of the world clean water when we willingly waste $1 on a bottle of water here that we will only drink half of. So many of us are only concerned about ourselves and how things affect us. Guaranteed that those criminals that show no remorse would be full of rage if the acts that they committed were done to them. We are perfectly fine with yelling at someone for cutting us off, yet if someone was to do that to us, we would be enraged. We can stand and watch someone take a beating, but if we were the recipients, we would be crying injustice. If we lacked clean water we would be confronting our government in anger over their lack of efforts to provide it for us. There is clearly something wrong here.

What if we began to operate solely out of love? What if we began to put others before ourselves? What would it look like if we gave everyone grace and understanding instead of condemnation? What would happen if we began discussing instead of arguing? What if we stood for what’s right instead of accepting what’s wrong? Think about the massive change that would take place. It’s as if we are afraid to get dirty, to put forth any kind of effort. Or maybe we are afraid to face our weaknesses and wrongdoings in order to make them into strengths because pride gets in the way. We may desire change but are we willing to walk the journey to get there?  

Change starts in the mirror. What are our actions speaking? Are they adding to the injustice or are they healing it. Am I practicing love or am I giving into anger and hatred? Operating in love isn’t easy. You will look completely different to the rest of the world but isn’t that what we desire? For our world to be different from what it is. If so, then why wouldn’t we want to look completely different from the world?

Injustice comes in many forms. The root of all injustice however is the same. Selfishness, greed, hatred, power, pride, and the list goes on and on. We may not be causing any injustice in our lives, but to turn our backs to injustice is just as much…an injustice. 

Maybe it’s time we start asking ourselves in every situation, am I operating out of love, understanding, and selflessness or am I acting out of anger, hatred and selfishness? I can promise you this…whatever the situation…in the end, love always wins.

-R

Merry Christmas!

Everyone here at Fire For Hope would like to wish you and your loved ones a very Merry Christmas. We are beyond blessed to be able to call each and every one of you friends. We can’t wait to see you all in the new year as we come together to continue to work as one to keep this fire for hope going, spreading love to people all over the world! Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

-FFH 

We are THANKFUL

When the last note was played and the last drop of paint was smeared across the canvas at Thankful, all of us at Fire For Hope and Random Fingerprints were left completely humbled. Over a hundred hearts gathered to give thanks, and then give to others. They gave their time, they gave their treasures, they gave hope. If we are to change our world, if we are to see hope become a living, breathing, moving thing, then we need to stop looking to leaders to do it. Instead we need to be the leaders. We need to be the ones to do it. We have the ability and over a hundred people gathered knowing that in their hearts. Orphans will be shown their value. The thirsty will know what it means to drink clean water. The hungry will have food on their tables. All because people recognized that another’s life has just as much value as their own. We are Thankful for all of you. We all matter. We all have purpose. Hope lives, and we hope that you will continue to join us in showing that to the rest of the world. Let’s keep the fire for hope burning. We are thankful. So very Thankful.

-R

Why should I come to “Thankful” on the 23rd?

We all get bombarded with event information every single week. Someone on Facebook has an event or a friend with an event or a friend who has a friend who has an event. We walk down the street and get handed a flyer or we return to our cars after shopping only to find a flyer has been placed on our windshield. There’s always something going on and there is always a reason as to why we shouldn’t miss it. With this flood of events and demand for our time, we always stand and ask ourselves the question: Why should I come?

Our “Thankful” event falls on a date where our time becomes even more valuable; the night before Thanksgiving. Some of us will be looking forward to some much needed time for relaxation. Some of us will be spending time with visiting family. Some of us will be using that time to hang out with friends or catch up on sleep or planning their day after Thanksgiving shopping trip. Whatever you are thinking about using that night for, we understand that every minute is valuable. This understanding that every minute is valuable drives us to make sure you are at this event. You see, as each minute passes, there is someone in the world that is dying because of a disease they contracted due to unsafe drinking water. As each minute passes, there is a father in our community that can’t feed his children. As each minute passes, there is a woman who is going to sleep under a pile of newspapers printed with stories about a world that has forgotten about her. We view our time as precious, we view our lives as precious, but how often do we view others time and lives as precious? This isn’t to guilt you into coming to this event. This is instead our way to show you the heartbeat of this event and why we do what we do and why we want you to be a part of it…because you matter…we all matter…and we want to show others that they do too. 

“Thankful” is so much more than a concert. It’s so much more than 2 hours of your time. It’s a night, on the eve of celebrating all that we have to be thankful for, that we can come together and listen to live music from ridiculously talented musicians, experience paintings by an incredible artist as they are painted, but most importantly, to give to others so that they too can have much to be thankful for on Thanksgiving. Tickets for this event are $10. Of that $10, all of it will go towards Fire For Hope. Fire For Hope will then use that money to put towards clean water wells in Africa ($1 gives 1 person clean water for a year!), food for local communities (1 out of every 6 Americans suffer from hunger!), helping homeless in American cities (anywhere from 3-16 million are homeless!), and needs that we haven’t even foreseen that we feel need our time, donations, and efforts. In order to see change take place, it requires sacrifice…of our time, of our blessings, and of ourselves. $10, 2 hours, 1 night can impact countless lives!

In the midst of all the flood of events and all that there is to do on November 23rd, 2011 at 8PM, we hope that you will join us at our event as we celebrate all that we are thankful for by giving back to others. 

We love you all and we wish you, your families, and your friends a very happy and blessed Thanksgiving.

-R

Fire For Hope presents: Thankful -a night of art and music                                          

@ Weadon Photography                                                                                              

305 Hanson Avenue, Fredericksburg, VA 22401                                              

***Tickets now on sale @ Weadon Photography or message info@fireforhope.com for other ticket purchasing options***