We are the Ones We've Been Waiting For!

In a reflection about how lucky we are to do work in social entrepreneurship, Jesse King and Jacqueline Novogratz pointed me to a wonderful story and song this week. It centered around a baccalaureate graduation speech in 2004 where Rev. Jim Wallis shared thoughts on faith, politics and culture. Jacqueline and Jesse knew the powerful street organizer (Lisa Sullivan) who Wallis refers to at the end of the speech for saying, “We are the ones we’ve been waiting for!” Some of the speech is below and for the full text, click here.

“…I now believe that the real battle, the big struggle of our times, is the fundamental choice between cynicism and hope…. Hope is not a feeling. It is a decision….

"And the realities of our world are these: almost half the world, close to three billion people, live on less than 2 dollars a day; and more than one billion live on less than 1 dollar a day. And every day, 30,000 children die needlessly due to utterly preventable causes like hunger, disease, and things like the lack of safe drinking water - things we could change if we ever decided to. For the first time in history we have the information, knowledge, technology, and resources to bring the worst of global poverty virtually to an end. What we don't have is the moral and political will to do so. And it is becoming clear that it will take a new moral energy to create that political will.

"…The antidote to cynicism is not optimism but action. And action is finally born out of hope. Try to remember that.

"…One of the best street organizers I ever met was Lisa Sullivan. Lisa was a young African American woman from Washington DC, a smart kid from a working class family who went to Yale and earned a PhD. But Lisa felt called back to the streets and the forgotten children of color who had won her heart. With unusual intelligence and entrepreneurial skills she was in the process of creating a new network and infrastructure of support for the best youth organizing projects up and down the East Coast. But at the age of 40, Lisa died suddenly of a rare heart ailment.

Lisa's legacy is continuing though countless young people who she inspired, challenged, and mentored. But there is one thing she often said to them and to all of us that has stayed with me ever since Lisa died. When people would complain, as they often do, that we don't have any leaders today, or ask where are the Martin Luther Kings now? - Lisa would get angry. And she would declare these words: "We are the ones we have been waiting for!" Lisa was a person of faith. And hers was a powerful call to leadership and responsibility and a deep affirmation of hope.

Lisa's words are the commission I want to give to you. It's a commission learned by every person of faith and conscience who has been used to build movements of spiritual and social change. It's a commission that is quite consistent with the virtue of humility, because it is not about taking ourselves too seriously; but rather taking the commission seriously. It's a commission that can only be fulfilled by very human beings, but people who, because of faith and hope, believe that the world can be changed. And it is that very belief that only changes the world. And if not us, who will believe? If not you, who? After all, we are the ones that we have been waiting for.

What is really possible? The eleventh chapter of the book of Hebrews says this:
"Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen." And my best paraphrase of that for you is this: Hope is believing in spite of the evidence, and then watching the evidence change."

"...you are the ones we have been waiting for. Let's give Micah the last word - something to take away with you as you leave from this place and for every step of your journey. What does the Lord require of you, but to do justice, love kindness, and walk humbly with your God."

Click to hear the powerful song: We are the Ones We Have Been Waiting For.