For Those Moments When Life is Hard

We have all recently had moments and conversations about when life quite simply is hard. We are flying thru our lives when unexpectedly – we’re caught by events we did not – in fact could not have been able to see or anticipate.

It can be a challenge to go through these times or see those you love and care about going through them, and not wonder how any good can come from such pain.

I keep coming back to my belief that sometimes we confuse possibility thinking with a "Pollyanna" perspective. When our pain is fresh and deep, we can understandably reject any notion of good or positive thinking as not possible.

This is where we do ourselves and those we love the greatest disservice. Because possibility thinking is where the miracles live. That has been true in my life and in so many I have had the privilege to serve.

Because Haiti has been in the news of late, one story keeps coming back to me that speaks beautifully to this.

Over a decade ago, a young woman went to Haiti on a mission trip with some classmates and professors from her college.

The young woman in our story is Britney Gengel. There was an earthquake and the hotel where they were staying collapsed. She and all her traveling companions perished.

To make the pain even more challenging for her family and friends, for 33 days after the initial event they did not know if she had survived. I'm sure I would be frantic after 33 hours – they had to endure 33 days.

This is the last message her parents received from her:

"They love us so much and everyone is so happy. They love what they have, and they work so hard to get nowhere, yet they are all so appreciative. I want to move here and start an orphanage myself."

In the face of heartbreak so deep it is incomprehensible for most of us, her parents Len and Cherylann Gengel did the unthinkable: they asked what they could do. They asked what was possible.

They founded the Be Like Brit foundation and made their daughter’s mission their own. They traveled to Haiti as a pilgrimage: To bring their daughter’s body home and to see what she saw – to find a way to bring the vision she shared in her last message to them to life.

Over the course of the next few years, they watched the reality unfold. A 19,000 square foot earthquake-proof orphanage has risen from the broken and cracked surfaces of Haiti's beautiful landscape.

It’s a story that begins with heartbreak but becomes more beautiful with every child’s life that is transformed.

Every day, there are now 33 girls and 33 boys living a very different life from what would have been possible without the miracle of what has grown from Brit's message of love. They are her legacy. Brit’s Home is just the beginning of the gifts her life will continue to make possible.

In these troubled times in Haiti, her light continues to shine and make a difference even beyond their walls.

These are the stories that humble me. These are the heroes that remind me at every turn why creative resilience is the only answer to bringing all the good that we can to the world. And these are the stories that I hope bring comfort to those I love in their own loss. 

How do we honor those we lose? By honoring what they cared about. But let’s take that a step further. How do we honor those still with us? By doing the same. Let’s not wait until they are gone. Let’s do it now!

If you’d like to know more about how you can be a part of this important work, learn about the possibilities on their website at: BeLikeBrit.org