Encouragement 101

Actress Celeste Holm said, “We live by encouragement and we die without it—slowly, sadly, angrily.” I am extremely fortunate because I have a tribe of people around the globe from both the Spanish-speaking world and the English-speaking world who have encouraged me throughout more than four decades of ministry.

These voices remind me of my father’s indominable voice at my high school swim meets. As I stood on the starting blocks, I could invariably hear dad’s voice above the boisterous crowd, “Come on, Steve! Tear ‘em up! You can do it!”

In my last blog, I commented about how I had been feeling discouraged. It was a vulnerable moment. I took a risk.

The reaction blew me away. Normally, I receive a handful of responses from my blog posts. But this time I received a tidal wave of encouragement and prayer.

There is a scene in Frank Perretti’s book, This Present Darkness, where the preacher is doubled over from the weight of demonic oppression. The angelic forces rally to his aid and new energy and life begin to fill his soul. It’s a powerful moment.

I don’t claim to understand everything about the unseen forces at play in our lives as Christ followers. But I am certain that everyone who names Jesus as Lord will, at some point, be assaulted by demonic forces bent on our discouragement.

One of the people who wrote to encourage me reminded me of a story I told many years ago in a sermon. It was an illustration I first heard from Ben Merold, the pastor who called me into vocational ministry.

As the story goes, Satan was having a garage sale getting rid of many of the tools of his trade…things like vice, greed and enmity.

But there was one tool off to the side that was not for sale. Someone asked what it was and why it wasn’t for sale. Satan responded, “That’s discouragement. I will never get rid of that one. I can do more harm with discouragement than any other tool in my arsenal.”

I have never known anyone who suffered from receiving too much encouragement. But I have known many who have shriveled from the lack of it. Using the words of Celeste Holm, they withered away “…slowly, sadly, angrily.”

As I said at the outset, I am blessed because I have voices around the globe who encourage me. But not everyone has this. I challenge you to keep your eyes open. You have never locked eyes with anyone who was not loved lavishly by God.

But many of the people you interact with every day carry silent pain and aching hearts. Speak life into those who help you in Wal-Mart. Smile at the people walking by. Lift those around you with kind words.

One of my favorite descriptions of God in the Old Testament is that he’s the “lifter of my head.”  Isn’t that a beautiful image? When we’re down and discouraged, God lifts up our head. Using my father’s cheers, God says to us, “Come on! Tear ‘em up! You can do it!”

This week has been a good week in Costa Rica. We launched two services this past Sunday. It was a Herculean effort from our team. Our team arrived at 6:00 AM to set up and rehearse. Our 9:30 AM service was lightly attended (as expected) and our 11:00 AM service was standing-room-only. But God was present and the morning was a resounding success.

The first thing I did Monday morning was to send text messages to everyone on our team thanking them for their extraordinary efforts. I wanted to encourage them.

You can do the same. Who do you know that needs to be encouraged?