Encourage the Good

Most of us get to a place where we can begin to coast, we have put in the hard yards to get up the hill and now we can free wheel the final stretch. We can hold onto what we’ve got and think it doesn’t matter if we make it or not, especially if we feel we are well over half way there.

I am yet more thankful how the number 99 reminds me that there is further to go and more to do. 

Ministry is not a career. It is not better to be the pastor a large church in a city or a small rural parish, it is not more significant to be the President of an organisation or the junior administrator. The key thing is to serve and to use whatever platform you have to advance others and encourage their growth.

The relationship between the little guy and the son of encouragement is a fascinating example of leadership development and helpfully identifies some key issues around encouragement. I am struck by five of these lessons from The Barnabas Files. I will share three of these today and save two for tomorrow.

The soundtrack of my life has a playlist pressed through memories and reflects my loyalties, passions and choices. My songbook is full of my greatest hits, the archeology of my tastes reveals many clues to my identity. 

What is different about this new song is that is sung to the Lord and it is for everybody. It is to be sung in the present but it’s melody is timeless. It is not for special days or occasions but is to be proclaimed day after day.

Paul and Silas endured all this. They could have asserted their rights as Roman Citizenship when they were being accused of being Jewish agitators subverting Roman law and order. But instead they gave up their rights and freedoms and endured suffering. 

What happened to them was unfair but their response is shaped by their citizenship of heaven rather than that of Rome. Instead of being angry at their treatment and protesting they pray and rather than planning revenge or scheming to sue, they sing. In the darkness and pain, they turn to the Lord.

 What do you do in leadership when things do not pan out as you expected they might or you hoped they would? It is easier if there is someone to blame but harder when people are looking to you and wondering what is going on. We can have an easy out if “circumstances beyond our control” provide a ready excuse. 

New beginnings are frequently fraught and change is always challenging but at least someone knows what is going on. I need the humility to give up on plan A and to not defend plan B but to look for the new opportunity that will I believe always open.

I do not remember as a child asking on car journeys if we were nearly there yet. But pretty much every hill I have ever climbed I get excited that the next ridge is going to be the top or at the very least will allow a peek of the peak and I become piqued when it is not. 

Discouragement only turns to defeat when we give up on the climb. A pause does not indicate doubt or despair but may in fact be an opportunity to enjoy the view. The encouragement in the hills is that while keeping going for the summit we can turn around and see how far we have come

The love and faithfulness of the Lord are to be proclaimed and celebrated from when we wake at dawn to when we sleep at night. Our worship responds to the Lord’s greatness, impressive work and superior knowledge.

The thing I find helpful about this is that it expresses truths about God. The joy is not conjured from within but is rooted in the person and work of the Lord. My feelings change day by day and hour by hour. The Lord does not change. Better that I sing his melody in his key than hum my own dissonant tune. 

Today marks Canada’s first National Day for Truth and Reconciliation. It is long overdue. The date was picked to coincide with Orange Shirt Day an indigenous grass roots initiative honouring the lost children and the survivors of Canada’s Residential Schools system. Recent discoveries of unmarked children’s graves in the grounds of a number of former residential schools has brought this shameful history into the spotlight but it only confirms what many indigenous people have been saying for years.

Today is a day to listen and understand the truth of what happened and its enduring impact. Without truth there can be no reconciliation. It is also a day to embrace and celebrate indigenous culture, express solidarity and advocate for action. Inequality, injustice, abuse, violence and discrimination continue to be present realities for many indigenous people.

As a newcomer to Canada I am still listening and trying to learn. 

“Courage isn't having the strength to go on - it is going on when you don't have strength.” 

Like soldiers we often cannot see how the battle is progressing, our immediate experience in the conflict can be encouraging or depressing, frightening or exhilarating. The call is to keep going, to join in suffering and endure.

 We do not have the luxury of questioning why the advance is not going better, complaining about our mission or longing for civilian life.