Inspiring Others

This series of messages focuses on how hope can be used to become a model for others to follow.

    • The Last 15 Meters

      All of us have had the experience of being challenged to do something we know we would fail at. How do you maintain hope in such cases? To answer that essential life question, imagine that you are Eric Moussambari from Equatorial Guinea. The year is 2000 and you are...

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    • Joseph Barrow

      Joseph (Joe) Barrow was born in 1914 in Alabama. His grandparents had been slaves. Joe had difficulty speaking and said very little until he was 6 years old. His father was institutionalized when Joe was 2, so he never really knew his biological father. When his...

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    • It Is Well With My Soul

      Horatio Spafford was born in 1828 in New York. He was a lawyer by profession and a real estate investor. He was married in 1861 and had four daughters. The first of many tragedies to strike Horatio was the Great Fire of Chicago. It destroyed properties that Horatio...

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    • Songs that Unite Us

      It was 1908 and Jack Norworth was riding a subway train when he saw a sign that inspired a tune. Norworth was a songwriter as part of the Tin Pan Alley Music scene in the early 20th century. He teamed up with Albert Von Tilzer to set the lyrics to music. The original...

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    • A Life of Hope

      J.C. Hall was born in 1891 in Nebraska. He had a tough early start to life. His parents divorced and his father died when he was seven. When J.C. was eight, J.C. became a door-to-door salesman of perfumes for what would become Avon products. When J.C. was 14, he and...

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    • Hope from Life’s Struggles

      Louis Zamperini was born in New York in 1917. His parents were immigrants from Italy and neither he nor his parents spoke English. Louis was a subject of bullying and that led Louis to having a rebellious childhood. Louis’ older brother encouraged him to try out for...

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    • Hopes in Perspective

      Charley was unsure what he wanted to do with his engineering degree other than he wanted to make a difference. When he graduated, he started his career working as a design engineer for a socially responsible company. His work was highly praised, but Charley wasn’t...

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    • Hope and Finding Your Life’s Purpose

      George was an indifferent student. He had gone to college hoping to find a career, but he really wasn’t interested in any of his courses. When George returned home in the summer, he didn’t expect to return to college. But all that changed when the father of...

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    • An Inventive Mind

      Lonnie Johnson was born in Alabama in 1949. His father had not completed high school but was a skilled handyman who taught Lonnie and five siblings to create their own toys. This was the start of Lonnie’s lifetime of tinkering. Lonnie went to a segregated high school...

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    • Paying it Forward

      One of the most lasting stories of hope is one that we call paying it forward. The concept is that we return kindness given to us by paying it forward to another person. Paying it forward was brought to our conscious by a popular movie in 1999. But the concept of...

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