friday story and quotation

Each year St. Andrew's chooses a non-profit to support through fundraisers, volunteer work, etc... Last year we raised money to support the Gazelle Foundation and helped bring clean drinking water to people in Burundi. This year we're sticking closer to home and are going to support Lifeworks, an organization in Austin that helps move children and families from crisis to safety. Lifeworks provides housing, counseling, and education resources for youth so that they might lead lives of self-sufficiency to avoid long-term reliance on social services. This week Susan McDowell, executive director of Lifeworks, came to speak to St. Andrew's to explain what Lifeworks does. Part of her presentation included a story about a young man who was extremely grateful to Lifeworks for helping him find his way through life after years of living on the street after he and his sister were abandoned by their mother. The story was moving. It had 300+ teenagers and all of us adults in the room hushed to silence.
But what really struck me was what Susan said at the end of her presentation. As she was explaining the role that Lifeworks played in the lives of the people that had been helped, she shared an idea that went something like this: "everyone deserves someone in their lives who supports them irrationally." I LOVE THAT STATEMENT!
Someone who will stand up for you and go to bat for you and help you out. Someone who is in your court even when things look bleak. Someone who will go to the end of the earth for you even though it's a crazy thing to do. Someone who will be by your side no matter the day - good or bad.
And it made me grateful to have had more than my share of people like that in my life. Far more than I ever deserved. And it made me think about being that person for at least one person in my lifetime.