Encouragement

Something I posted months ago on another blog, part of something called Church UndercoverChurch Undercover—something about EncouragementAbout a month ago it was one of those beautiful ends of a summer day. The sun was shining, it was just the right temperature to lure you to spend you whole day outside. What was I doing, packing? I was loading all of my family’s possessions into the back of a 27’ Penske truck. I was tired, exhausted but full of hope and excitement for the next day -- because we were leaving to begin the next chapter in our journey, the Chicagoland chapter.Later that afternoon, after the truck was all packed up, apartment cleaned up. I went back outside to put our travel bags in the car. Suddenly I noticed that propped up on my car on the tow trailer was this painting of very peaceful, calming springtime landscape. There is a narrow path going through a field of trees. There is a fence running along the road. The flowers are pink and white. The dogwood trees are in bloom. The sun is shining through the leaves. It’s really beautiful. On the back of the picture was this post-it note:“I hope this picture blesses you and your family. The road is narrow, but it is worth it.”There was no signature, but my wife immediately knew who did it. It was one of our neighbors that had recently moved into our complex. We had already known them from church a little bit; my wife was closer to the mom than I was with the dad. Our kids were close in age. I knew that this lady had issues of her own that she was struggling with. So I was blessed to receive her words of encouragement. Little did she know that in my own quiet times over the past couple of weeks, I had been in Psalm 25, meditating and praying verses like:“4 Show me the right path, O Lord; point out the road for me to follow. 5 Lead me by your truth and teach me, for you are the God who saves me. All day long I put my hope in you.8 The Lord is good and does what is right; he shows the proper path to those who go astray. 9 He leads the humble in doing right, teaching them his way. 10 The Lord leads with unfailing love and faithfulness all who keep his covenant and obey his demands.” (Ps 25, NLT)Her words, “the road is narrow, but it is worth it,” were just further confirmation that I was moving in the right direction. I am trying my best to be obedient to the ONE, ALMIGHTY GOD whose love is unfailing.As followers of Christ, we are never promised a smooth path to follow. The picture I mentioned above is lovely and inviting. There is nothing scary about it and there is probably not one person alive that would be afraid to walk down that path. However, it’s only a picture and not the whole story. I don’t know what waits around the corner, or around that big tree. It could be anything. It could be dangerous. It could be glorious. It could be painful. It could be refreshing. What I do know is that God rewards faithful obedience. He says, if I follow, if I obey, if I live by His covenant, obey His commands... His unfailing love and faithfulness is there. I am so grateful that I am never alone. God’s Spirit dwells inside me and you because of our faith in what Jesus did on the cross.As a church, as the body of Christ, we also have the added bonus of walking this path together. We have a fellowship, a bond. Throughout scripture we’re taught to encourage one another, stand together, build each other up (Ecc 4:9, Gal. 6;10, 1 Thess 5:11, Heb. 3:13; 10:25). Part of doing church means that we are supposed to be there for each other, to spur each other on, to encourage one another in words and deeds. Unfortunately, that does not always happen. In fact, I wonder sometimes if it is even a strong characteristic of the church in general. I mean look at us, we are so divided over so many different issues. When you ask someone about their religion, most “Christians” identify themselves by their denomination and don’t even mention Jesus. The word Christian, in my opinion, probably does not even mean the same thing it did a decade ago. I am not here to argue for or against denominations, but if there is any real chance for us to get serious about obeying Jesus’ commands to “love our neighbor,” then we have to start loving Him first. If we are “loving others” the way Christ wants us to, then hopefully the words that come out of our mouths and the actions we do will only encourage, build up and grow more love.I don’t think that I would be the person I am today if not for others who have taken the time to say encouraging things to me, to love me even when it’s painful. To be honest with me in love, to encourage me and hold me up. We have got to start doing a better job of this. I have to do a better job at this.I’ve started this experiment today, doing some research for something I might write about one day. I have posed this question to some people: “What is something about church that you dislike?” I did not define church, but rather let them define it based on their culture perception of church. I assumed that they have had some kind of church experience. They did not know me, I didn’t know them. So far it’s sparked some colorful remarks. As I am reading them, I am responding to some of them. There is a lot of pain in the voices. I guess that I was not expecting so many people to be so honest about the church. Granted, I have no idea what kind of church they are talking about. But nevertheless, there are some people out there that apparently have not been very encouraged at all from the church, but literally torn down.I know that the church is made up of a bunch of imperfect people, including me. But at what point do we get it? At what point do we stop hurting people and start helping them? I have a long way to go. I am trying to be a better encourager. I am imperfect and I know it, and I’m truly sorry for anything I have ever done to discourage anyone who might be reading this. But if we are going to follow the Lord’s path, then our lives have to reflect it. We have to be lights. We have to help build each other up. We have to be kind and love one another.Father, help us to be able to love others the way You want us to. Help us to be lights in an growing-ever-darker world. May our words and actions only reflect Your character, and never be a stain on the cause of Christ.