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Tomorrow can be different from today.
Our lives often leave us feeling hopeless—like nothing will ever change. But perspective is everything. When you know where to look, hope can be found in the spaces and places you least expect.
Join Jason Gore (Lead Pastor of Hope Community Church) for a fresh perspective, practical steps, and weekly encouragement that hope really is possible… even in real life.
I gotta go out there today
and I gotta meet everybody's need.
Instead, it's just saying one yes.
To cross the street one time
to be curious enough to respond.
And that one yes. Can lead to another. Yes, sure.
But don't try to get three yeses ahead
of yourself. Yeah. Just the one.
Yeah. I'd like to add to that.
'cause I think that's right.
You, you do have to see that you have a role to play,
you know, in, in loving your neighbor.
You're not alone. You don't have to do it alone.
Welcome to the Hope and Real Life podcast with Jason Gore.
Our team is passionate
and committed to bringing you more hope in the everyday
real areas of your life.
If this conversation and content is valuable for you,
please do us a favor, like, subscribe, and even share.
You never know how valuable it could be
to share a little bit of hope with someone else.
Let's get the conversation started.
What's going on? Hope in Real life family.
We have a episode this week that I know that our world
and our communities desperately need, um, guests that, uh,
actually are my neighbors.
And, uh, yes, we are man, as good a folk
as you'd ever want to be around.
Uh, welcome to the show, Sean and Heather Sullivan.
Thanks for being here with us.
Thanks for having us. Jason.
Yeah, why don't we just start out by, look,
I'm sure we'll get into this at some point in the show, like
what you guys do for a living and all that kind of stuff,
but that's not really why you're here.
Why you're here is, we're actually just talking about
neighboring, and you guys are just good people.
But why don't you just introduce yourselves to the audience
and to our listeners and talk about
yourself for a minute. Okay,
Great. You
Go first. All right. Um,
I'm Heather. Uh, we have two kids.
We have two boys, uh, teenagers.
One of 'em just graduated from high school.
Um, the job that I get to do
that you said we'll talk about later, is one
of the most fun things I could imagine doing with my life.
Uh, I'll save it. I used to be a high school teacher.
Uh, a lot of that plays into who I became
as a person later in life.
And yeah, I think
that's pretty much it. That's all you need to
Know. Yeah. Uh,
well, we met in college,
and then I did youth ministry for like 10 years.
Um, and then got outta that, went into the coffee industry
and had a lot of fun doing that stuff.
And then, uh, Jason Gore invited me to come work at Hope,
be a part of what we were doing in our community in Garner,
um, which was just kind of creating this outpost
for reaching people and, and for creating communities there.
So I jumped into small group, uh,
leadership there, and that was a blast.
And, um, just over time have seen more
and more things that have happened in our community
because of the groups, because of the people involved,
including what we have now, which is a campus there, uh,
where we're reaching people and creating more community.
So it's been a really fun ride,
and we did get the opportunity along the way
to move into the neighborhood intentionally, uh, next
to Jason and Diana Gore, who have just been fantastic,
and we've been able to be on mission in our
own neighborhood together. So it's been cool.
So the purpose of this whole podcast is
to really bring hope to the everyday moments
of everyone's lives, um, where we live,
we spend a significant amount of time.
And so I'd love to ask the both of you, like,
why is it important to be a good neighbor?
Well, when you're talking about the need for people
to have hope in real life, um, it's really your neighbors.
It's really the people that are gonna bring that to you.
And if you don't understand what that means,
and if you don't understand the importance of you being one
of those people for other people,
people aren't just gonna kick over a rock and find hope.
Yeah. Um, and they're not gonna kick over a rock
and find a solution to the problem or find a connection
or a relationship that they need.
It's gonna come from somebody else being willing
to linger long enough, be curious enough,
hang out long enough,
and invite people into their space. Yeah.
So, Yeah. And I think it's, it's mutually beneficial.
You know, I mean, when we're,
when we're being a good neighbor, um, it opens the doors,
you know, for a lot more connection, a lot more trust.
And then you find that people are,
are being good neighbors back to you too.
So it really works out well in our communities.
Um, was thinking a lot about our kids though.
You know, we're just in this generation where, um,
right now they're in a generation, these digital natives,
where their sense of community is very digital.
And that's not bad. It's just, it, it needs the social,
it needs the interactive.
So I know it's important that my kids see me walking across
the street, talking to neighbors
and making real connections in real life.
Otherwise, you know,
they just might have their head
down the rest of their lives.
Yeah. It, it's interesting, we,
because hopefully if you listen, if you're,
someone's listening to this podcast,
like they're at least excited about what does it mean
to find hope in our lives?
I think a lot of times we, we know there's something inside
of us that says, Hey, we want to bring hope to other people
around us, or we want to find this purpose
that's bigger than ourselves.
Yeah. We think, what the heck am I supposed to do?
How can I figure this thing out?
When really there's, there's actually people
that live right next door to you that most likely need hope.
Mm-Hmm. And I think that's something that we overlook.
It's like, it doesn't have
to be any more difficult than just walking next door,
talking to someone, building a relationship,
and figuring out how you can help me to need
and make sure they know they're cared for.
Uh, so there's a, there was a study in 2018 that showed 57%
of Americans said they knew some of their neighbors.
Um, I'm shocked.
I guess that would mean if I do the math really
quickly, what does that mean?
43%? Maybe, possibly don't know any of their neighbors.
Just outta curiosity, how many
of your neighbors do the, both of you know?
Well, the neighbors,
if you're talking about just the people who live right
around the house that we live in, which is commonly
what people think of when they think of the word neighbor.
Um, I'd love to challenge that thought in a minute,
but, um, just that answer is I know who all
of them are, know them deeply.
I, he probably knows our
neighbors who live right around us more
Deeply than I do. I'm the extroverts,
He's an extrovert, and it's, it's a lot
of men who live right around us.
Um, and including to the right of us, there's a,
a single young guy who's got a few roommates who live there.
Um, and so Sean's done a great job of getting to know him.
Um, but I know who all of them are.
I know enough about their life to know probably
what they're all about, what it is that they do
for a living, and I would say even what they care about, um,
that just comes from being observant.
Yeah. But if you wanna
Yeah, just for the immediate neighbors man, like,
uh, I do know them all.
Um, and I was challenged a little while back actually
reading a book that we're gonna mention later.
Um, just that, you know,
you got these neighbors right around you.
Do you even know the names of the people
to your left your right across the street diagonal?
Do you even know those? And if you don't know their names,
like that's the starting point.
You, you don't know anything.
If you don't know their names,
you're, you're just getting by.
So, um, that was big.
So just started to try to get to know each of their names
and very quickly, it's like you said, Jason,
you don't have to try hard.
Um, you don't have to make it into some
big mountainous thing.
You just start small like that, and then it happens.
It just works out. Um,
but yeah, it's been really cool getting to know, you know,
the, the people right around us.
So I do know every, I have a cheat though.
On my left side, I just have a pond, so
I haven't met every turtle in the pond. There's
Some turtles and some geese over there.
Yeah, definitely a lot.
Um, Sean, since you're talking about this,
what qualities do you think makes a good neighbor?
Uh, I think I wrote a couple down
that I was thinking about this really just basic stuff.
So friendly, just being friendly from the start.
You know, put that friendly foot forward.
Um, being respectful.
Um, that goes a long way when you're talking about
neighbors, um, boundaries.
Um, you know, if you're gonna throw a party,
make sure they know if there's gonna be 50 cars on the
street, make sure that you've told
them that that's going on.
Um, and then I'd say even helpful, um, you know, helpful
That doesn't by chance have anything to do
with the single guy that lives next to you
that has three other roommates
And, and maybe has Parties occasionally
He does, you know, young, young adults need to socialize,
um, in the backyard.
Yeah. Toward the whole neighborhood. Can hear it. Yes.
Um, but we've got, you know, we've got neighbors around us
who are able to help each other in different ways.
And so just in the four neighbors around us,
it's like we've all helped each other somehow.
And, uh, neighbor across the street, Billy,
he's got this really good talent of smoking pork shoulders,
and so he does it,
and then he starts taking it to neighbors around him.
Yeah. And it's, it's really kind,
it's really, it's really generous.
But also there's been times
where I've had like a truck repair I don't know how
to do anything with, and he has experience in that.
And so he's come over, he is helped me fix my truck before.
So pretty cool stuff. Yeah.
Um, when you obviously, you know,
never you guys are our neighbors, which is
how I happen to know that.
Um, you guys are good neighbors.
Uh, but let's talk for a minute just about Heather.
You alluded to this earlier, how
maybe our neighbor isn't just someone that lives next to us.
Um, you know, we're all a part of a community, um, a bunch
of individual disconnected people running
around doing their own things.
While it might seem like it's best for me as an individual,
it might not be best for the holistic community as a whole.
And so why, why don't just talk about that.
What were you getting at a moment ago when you said you'd
like to challenge the thought
of a neighbor just being somebody that lives next to you?
Yeah. Well, I think that's a great place to start,
and it's an important place to make sure
that you are connected to the people
who live directly around you for sure.
Um, but that sometimes can oversimplify the concept, um,
because what if the people around you don't seem
to have some need that you're, you know, showing up to meet?
Or what if they don't seem so hopeless
and you think that it's as simple as that?
Or what if you live on a farm or your neighbor is the turtle
in a pond, um, does that mean
that you're excluded from having to care
or from thinking about yourself as a neighbor? And so,
I just had a picture of, what's the movie with Tom Hanks?
And he is on a boat and he is got his volleyball.
Wilson Wilson. What's the movie? Castaway? Yeah.
That's Castaway. Mm-Hmm. Yeah. So, I mean, that
Was his neighbor.
Okay. That's, That was dramatically his
Neighbor. A lot of times we're looking
out
and we're thinking about our neighbors
as the other people when we are the neighbor.
And so I think when you ask, well, you know, what,
what makes a great neighbor?
Probably the, the characteristic that stands out the most,
if you really wanna show up in the world
as a great neighbor, is curiosity.
Yeah. You have to literally be curious about
the people who are around you.
Truthfully, your cashier at the
grocery store is your neighbor.
Everywhere you go, there you are.
And you are a neighbor in every environment that you're in.
And so if you're curious about people's lives,
and then you're willing to be present
and hang out long enough, um,
and sometimes that means in that five minutes
and never again, that's still your neighbor.
Yeah. Um, so I think it's, it's the showing up
and willing to be curious, and then when you see
something be intentional in your
Response. Yeah. And there's
power in
that keeps showing up kind of thing.
Like if you go to, if you got a neighborhood Starbucks,
and you, you know, you go through that drive through line,
you're gonna keep seeing these people,
and then they're gonna start talking to you
and you're gonna make more connections.
You know? And I know that, uh,
the young lady at the Starbucks very close to our house
that, you know, one day she just kind of clicked with her
and she said, wait, do you go to this church?
I was like, yes, we go to that. I go to that church.
And then she said, I was taught guitar lessons by one
of your guitar players at the church.
I was like, wow, that's so cool. So it struck this new kind
of depth of relationship just
because, you know, just the consistency of trying
to make sure that I was intentional in going there
to see her instead of just going anywhere. Yeah.
Hope in real life family.
I want to take a moment and let you know about a resource
that we have for you, for your own personal development,
spiritual enrichment, and really a way for you
to find a bit more hope in real life.
We have a tool for you called the Hope in Real Life app.
It offers things like parenting tips, financial resources,
marriage insights, uh, if you're looking for it,
there's even Bible reading plans in there.
And there's a community
where you can even share prayer requests
and know that someone is praying for you for whatever it is
that you have going on in your life.
It's available right now in the Apple App
Store or in Google Play.
You can search hope in real life in both stores,
or you can use the download link that is in the show notes.
Remember, tomorrow can be better than today,
and hope is possible, even in real life.
I, uh, I, I know a lot, all
of our listeners aren't necessarily Christian
or interested in following the ways of Jesus,
but I think it's important just to highlight this.
So there, there's a place in the Bible
where Jesus has asked, Hey, like,
what's the greatest commandment?
And he says, um, the most important thing is to love God
with all your heart, soul, and mind and strength.
So love God with everything that you have.
But he said, the second is like, it is
to love your neighbor as yourself.
And there's a, I think the reason behind that is
because that actually helps the world interact and,
and experience life the way that God originally designed.
Right? Everybody loving each other.
But then Jesus has asked, well, who's my neighbor?
He's like immediately looking for, okay,
then what is it that I have to do?
And whether you, you know, follow the ways of Jesus
or not, I mean, he's a pretty important person
throughout the course of human history.
Mm-Hmm. People still talk about him today,
so there's gotta be some strength to what he said.
And so he tells this story of, um, someone who's hurt
and on the side of the road, and he tells a story
of multiple people that passed by him for other reasons,
but one person actually stops and does take care of 'em.
And, um, Jesus imposes a question.
So I'll just ask you, who is the neighbor to this person?
And it was obviously the person that met the needs
and you that there's nothing that indicates that
that individual lived close by No.
To the other person. So how do you think a story like
that plays out for us
or for a listener in their everyday life?
Like, what does it mean to be a neighbor to our community?
What are ways we can do that?
So I'm gonna counter or add to your story with a story.
Um, so recently I was asked, how, how is it
that you don't get overwhelmed by, um, this thought
that honestly weighs on me pretty heavily all the time
that people are in need of, whether they admit it
or not, a good neighbor, um, they need people to,
to show up and to be neighbors.
And truthfully, without even really realizing it, I thought,
well, when I go on a walk, which I do every day, um,
when I go on a walk
and I'm passing by the houses, um,
that are in our neighborhood without even really trying
to think about it, I'm, I'm thinking about the
people who live in those houses.
And for some of them, I know more
of their story than others.
But then there's others where, you know,
a little bit if you've paid any attention at all.
And so that's sort of where this thought
of be curious about your neighbors
and think about what's going on in their lives so
that you can show up so that when you do notice,
wait a minute, there was an older person that lived in
that house and there's 20 cars lined
up outside the house right now.
Something must be going on.
Um, there's an ambulance that just pulled up over there.
Um, or there's a moving truck.
Or, you know, like noticing these things allows you the
opportunity to pray for, to show up for, um,
to ask questions about.
And in that story that you talked about,
when Jesus was sharing that story about
who makes a good neighbor, truthfully, the person
who ended up helping the guy who was hurt was the one
who was willing to walk across the street.
Yeah. So it was proximity, it was curiosity.
And then at the end of that story, when he's asked
who was the good neighbor,
he responds, the one who showed mercy.
Yeah. And so your proximity
and your curiosity leads you to the opportunity
to show compassion.
And that is your choice. Yeah.
And once you know that your neighbor is in need,
it's on you at that point to be intentional and to show up.
Um, and sometimes you will, and you'll get it right.
And sometimes you won't because you'll feel too busy.
And that's where I personally have to say,
where am I not making room in my life to show up
for people in a way that they might need?
And can that be overwhelming? It can.
If you look at it as, I gotta go out there today
and I gotta meet everybody's need, instead
it's just saying one yes.
To cross the street one time
to be curious enough to respond.
And that one yes. Can lead to another. Yes, sure.
But don't try to get three yeses ahead
of yourself. Yeah. Just the one.
Yeah. I'd like to add to that.
'cause I think that's right. You, you do have to see
that you have a role to play, you know,
in, in loving your neighbor.
You're not alone. You don't have to do it alone.
Um, and even in the story that you're talking about,
like the guy writes a blank check, basically,
but he tells other people, take care
of this, take care of this guy.
Yeah. Um, but I would say like something as simple as
if you have a soccer team that your kid's on
and somebody needs a ride to, to share,
to say they need a ride, I can't do it.
And then work diligently to find out who on the team can.
I mean, these, they have these, uh, team snaps
and these chats that they can do on these, these kind
of groups and teams.
And if you just put it out there, let the need be out there.
And so we can use social media,
we can use different digital tools that we have
to put needs out there.
And you see it all the time.
Somebody advocating for somebody else
and saying, they need to GoFundMe like this, this,
this tragic thing has happened.
Or they've kept this really deep need and,
and they take some ownership in it,
but they, they don't keep it to themselves.
They, they share it with the community around,
give them an opportunity.
Yeah. I think, um, so,
and we're talking a lot right now about meeting needs,
which is an aspect of being a good neighbor.
I think it's important for our listeners to realize too,
like, being a good neighbor isn't just about meeting needs.
Like sometimes it's just creating
community and creating hope.
Mm-Hmm. We lived, um, my wife
and I at one point actually lived
with another family in a house in downtown Raleigh.
And, um, it was an incredibly diverse neighborhood
and really like, man, how are we gonna connect with folks?
How do we build relationships in a, in a spot where
we're a lot different
than a lot of the people that live here?
And so, um, once a month, we just would throw parties.
And so we would do things like,
I'd just bring our pig cooker over, I'd cook a pig.
We let everybody know the day before around, you know, up
and down the streets around us
and say, Hey, we're cooking a pig.
We're gonna have more food than we can eat. Sounds amazing.
We're gonna have other things in the cooler.
And so if you just wanna show up
and maybe you just don't know who's gonna show up,
and like, things happen, like folks showed up
that we never would've met, that we built,
built relationships with that never would've happened.
Um, which sometimes did,
but oftentimes didn't lead to needs that we, you know,
had any way or felt calling to meet.
Mm-Hmm. Um, it led
to people being passed out on our front porch that we had
no idea who they were and how long they were gonna be there.
But, um, but I mean, sometimes being,
it's not just about meeting needs, like,
I think we forget sometimes.
Like no, it's, it's just a good idea
to slow down and have fun.
Right. And invite other people into that.
Everybody's busy, everybody's got pressure in life.
But man, every now
and then, like, let's just get together with the people
around us and have a good time. Yeah.
It's worth it. It's
Good. Um,
let's talk for a moment.
Uh, maybe just to keep it on the fun side.
Have you guys ever had any experience with, um,
maybe a bad neighbor?
Any stories you wanna tell there?
Not next door necessarily. No. If I had one, did you have
Uh, I have a story. Yeah.
About, um, so in the house
that we live in now, one day I was home.
Oh yeah. Oh Gosh, I know where this is
Going. And, um,
there was a neighbor who, um, attempted
to break into my house in the middle of the day by
smashing the front window of my house with a brick.
I would say that qualifies as not so great of a neighbor.
That's not a big experience. Yeah. Um, and,
and the neighbor who cooks the pork came over like
yelling, rescue, whatever.
As it turns out, she had some, some needs.
She was, needs some medication and she didn't have it.
And, um, she felt like she was actually helping me
by coming over and trying to get into the house. Um, that
Say that was kind of Her, it was so kind.
Um, but that was a moment where that didn't feel good. Yeah.
Um, but a lot of great
opportunities came from that afternoon.
I just want to be clear to our listeners,
it's not being a good neighbor if you go
to someone's house and break out their window.
Right. That's the bad issue. Right.
You know, with a brick anyway. Yeah. Right. Yeah.
Middle of the Day, Sean, you got one.
Yeah. Um, so man, a few years back,
I don't know if you remember this, but
we're, we're in the Raleigh area.
We don't get snow a lot, but sometimes we get a good one.
And it was, I think 2010 Christmas, um,
big snow, great time.
And so, uh, we did the Christmas day thing with our kids
and we're, we're opening everything
and then we kind of opened the curtains to kind
of check out what's going on outside.
Oh. I was like, where is this going?
And when we do, our neighbor who, he works for a tow company
and he loves hunting, has a tow truck out in the front
of his yard, and there is a headless deer strapped on
to the crossbars of the tow truck.
Merry Christmas. And it's bleeding out right
there in the front yard. And
How old were your kids? Oh,
Seth was like four. Yeah.
Oh, That's great. Yeah. And Brady was one.
And so I quickly like shut the curtains
back as fast as I could.
And I was like, okay,
well we're gonna check out the backyard
and see how the snow's going there.
Um, but uh, yeah, so that was an example of, I mean, it,
the guy wasn't intentionally trying to be a bad neighbor,
but he wasn't very conscious of, I mean, it's Christmas,
so I'm like, I don't know if Rudolph
made it, you know what I'm saying? Like, we're
Rudolph had a bad day.
He's like, what is happening?
But yeah, so that was, that was a weird one. Yeah. Gotcha.
Yeah. Hope in real life family.
We just want to take a moment
and let you know about a resource that is available to you.
I know a lot of our listeners aren't necessarily active in a
church, might not even be a Christian.
We are still thankful that you're spending time with us.
However, we do get asked regularly,
how can we find out more about your church,
or even just about this Jesus guy.
And so if that is you, I want you to know you can tune in
to get Hope tv.
We have live services on Saturday, 4:15 PM and 6:00 PM
or on Sunday at 9:30 AM
or 11:15 AM Those are Eastern standard times.
If you can't tune in during those times,
we will drop our YouTube link as well
as our podcast link down in the show notes.
We would love to have you join in with us.
Let's keep sharing some hope.
Um, hey, let's just sit in this for, I want to go back.
You know, we talked about things having fun.
I think this is gonna be, we got folks in studio.
Is this gonna air sometime around July 4th? Is that right?
Yes. Yeah. So let me just say this, man.
If you're listening to this and you're like, you know what,
how do I be a good neighbor July 4th?
Like, throw, have a party, have a cookout,
invite your neighbors, get some people together.
Most people are looking for something to do.
So, um, talk to your spouse, right?
If you're married, that's a good idea.
Before you throw a big party, make sure they're on board.
Yeah. Um, but get together with some neighbors.
Say, Hey, we're gonna grill some burgers
and just hang out for a day
and hot, hot and start some conversations.
Hot dogs, people still eat hot dogs.
There's warnings on it,
but you'd still do it. It's cheap. It's
Great. I read something
that said there is, nevermind,
I'm not gonna get into it about hot dogs.
And we don't, this is not what this episode's about,
but hot dogs taste great.
They're definitely not good for you,
but that's okay. That's a whole nother thing.
They're still socially acceptable. That's the point. Hey,
Let's talk resources for a moment.
Like, say somebody hears this like, Hey, I'm intrigued.
I want, I want to, um, grow in my ability
to be a good neighbor, to be able to share hope
with other people, to build community around me.
Um, what are some resources
that you have stumbled on to help out in this way?
Uh, well, I, uh, listened to a seminar that was given
by a guy named David DocuSign.
Um, and he had developed a neighboring, basically strategy.
Um, the book is called, the book he
wrote is called Neighborliness.
He does seminars. You can be a part of a community no matter
where you are, where you jump on Zoom calls
and basically hear ideas.
Um, they have, um, created an entire, um, center
around helping the needs of people
around Charlotte, North Carolina.
Um, and, but his model you can take
and you can say what would work where we are.
Um, or you can just listen to it
and get one idea and try it out.
And so I love that. 'cause I felt like I could take it,
it had handles on it, and I could do something right away.
That's good. Yeah. I mentioned, uh,
earlier just something that challenged me.
It was the Art of Neighboring a great book that just kind
of lays out some basic easy stuff that you can do,
Apathic. Is that
Right? Yes, that's right. Yeah.
Um, so that's a really good one.
Um, but I, to me, I, I felt like the greatest resource
for me has just been my memory.
Like, thinking back
how people made me feel in my community when they helped
out, my family took care of us,
or, um, you know, just celebrated things together.
I mean, we just had, there was a young man who just, uh,
just graduated eighth grade, uh,
in our community, not in our family.
And a lot of us just showed up
and celebrated him 'cause it was a big deal for him.
Yeah. And so, you know, that kind of thing.
Like, what's your memories that you have of
how people made you feel cared for and special,
and, um, like that you belong here and just lean into that
because that's gonna drive a lot of what you, you do.
Yeah. Um, as we get ready to wrap up, I, I just want
to kind of throw another, another thought out here.
'cause this, this actually is something
that I'm personally passionate about.
Like, how do we help other people just
experience and enjoy life?
And man, there's so much going on.
If you think of young families, they have kids,
they play in sports, they go to school.
Um, man, I mean, just
having kids in the public school system,
like you've got teachers that are stretched,
administrators that are stretched Mm-Hmm.
Parents are stretched. You're dealing with inflation.
You got way more dual income
situations, both parents working.
And so if you're talking about being a good neighbor,
if you're talking about investing in your community,
I would just challenge, uh, our listeners, man, look
for opportunities to get involved in your community
and then stick with it for the long haul.
Um, you know, one of the greatest, um, things
that we've ever done
as a family is started coaching Popcorn Warn
or football when our kids were like seven, eight years old.
And then we had the privilege to move up year
after year with those kids.
And, and now, now they're in high school.
And, but the relationships that we have
with those families, mm-Hmm.
By God's grace, I, I'm convinced that all
of our lives are more enriched and are better
because of the time that we put in.
And if you're not in sports, it doesn't have to be sports.
It could be, uh, it could be drama, it could be the arts.
Mm-Hmm. It could be getting involved in the school
and just helping the PTA, I mean, who knows what it is,
but man, there's
so much value in just getting involved in your community,
finding needs, whether it's a coach,
whether it's supporting teachers Mm-Hmm.
And just look around
and see what's going on in the
community and then get involved.
Yeah. It's not far away. It is right there with you.
Okay. Any other practical steps?
So I just dumped some on you.
Any other practical steps that you all would say?
I know Heather specifically, you, you mentioned,
you said you might mention your job later, you don't,
but you see a lot of different things.
Anything you would offer to us? Practical steps?
The only thing that I would say, uh,
I would just tack onto what you said with, um, instead
of showing up with the intention to do a bunch of stuff.
Yeah. It's just figure out where's
a space where you can go and be.
Yeah. Because truthfully,
that's really all people need is just another,
they just need other people.
And I think one of the implied questions that, uh,
whether we say it or not, that's out there in our mind is,
well, why should I care?
Or I don't feel like I need that. Hmm.
And the best thing I can say is, uh, it's not great, is
it doesn't really matter whether
you feel like you need it or not.
You do. Yeah. And so does everyone else.
And so if you wanna know why you should care
and why you should, my challenge would be just to go do it.
Yeah. Just go and be, don't try to do anything.
Don't, you know, obviously I live in the land a little bit
of meeting the needs, but, um, don't start there.
'cause people don't wanna be a project. Right.
People are people Yeah.
And they wanna be cared about as people. Yeah.
Um, and so I would say just go and be and show up.
That's good. Yeah. And then just say yes when the
opportunity is before you.
I mean, nobody has time. Like you just described a whole lot
of things that tell us
that we don't really have a lot of time.
You know, but you have, you're never gonna have enough time.
You just have to be willing to say yes
and press pause on the thing
that you're working on, the thing that you're doing.
Okay. So podcast is hope in real Life.
I love to end every episode, uh, just
by asking one question.
Uh, what are you most hopeful for in your life right now?
Mm. You go first, sister.
Man, I, I think I mentioned kids earlier.
I'm, I'm just hopeful that the next generation understands
like what real community can look like.
Yeah. You know, and I think all
of us are a little concerned about that for them,
but, you know, it's, it's not so far away.
And so I'm hopeful that people will be intentional, man.
It is. It's like summertime. It's time to get outside.
It's time to do things. And my hope is
that people will make those intentional steps, model it
for their kids and show their kids what it looks like.
Yeah. You know, in season three, episode three, uh,
we had Krista McDonald on as our guest,
and we talked about that, about how we all need community,
but social media in a lot
of ways makes us feel like we have more
connection than we really do.
Mm-Hmm. And we've gotta be
so intentional about just making sure
that we actually do interact with other people.
Yeah. In person in real life.
So, yeah. That's great. Heather?
Um, mine, mine's deeply personal.
I have an 18-year-old, we have an 18-year-old.
He just graduated and we're getting
to watch him become a young adult.
And, um, just, I'm just hopeful for what
that's gonna look like for him, for what it is he's about
to experience and for how our relationship's gonna change,
um, and become sweeter.
Uh, in spite of my bit of sadness about him moving on.
Um, it's gonna be moving on into something that's gonna be,
I'm, I'm really hopeful for what it's gonna become.
Yeah. That's awesome.
Well, thank, thank you to the both of you for being on,
uh, this episode.
And, and thank you even more
for actually being the neighbors that you both are
and the way that you invest in your community.
It's beautiful to see, it's inspiring.
And so, um, man, on behalf of, I feel like our,
our whole community, thank you for what you both do, uh,
hope and real life family.
Thank you so much for tuning into this episode.
Everything that we talked about, um, the Art of Neighboring
by Jay Pathic, uh, neighborliness Mm-Hmm.
By David Doon, David DocuSign.
We'll have that down in the show notes.
We'll have the link to the episode
with Kristen McDonald that we talked about.
So all of that will be there. Hey, listen,
if this content has been valuable for you,
or if maybe you've got a small group of folks
or just, uh, people from your HOA who knows that you want
to work together to build a bit more community together, uh,
share this episode.
All right. The world needs people that are going
to be intentional about building community so
that we can experience the hope
and love that all of us desperately need.
So take an action step.
You never know the difference that you can make
by sharing a bit of hope.
Heather and Sean, once again, thank you both for being here.
Thank you, Jason. All right.
Hope in real life, love you all.
If we can do anything for you,
or if you have any comments, we'd love
to hear what those are.
We will catch you on the next episode.
Thanks for tuning into this episode
of The Hope in Real Life podcast.
If this content was valued
before you don't forget, like, subscribe, share.
You never know how important it could be
to bring a little hope into someone else's life.
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Until next time, let's keep sharing hope.