“Incensed by a ‘no tresspassing’ sign, Jeff Deck launched a cross-country trip to right grammatical wrongs.
He enlisted a friend, Benjamin D. Herson, and together they got to work erasing errant quotation marks, rectifying misspellings and cutting unnecessary possessive apostrophes.
In 2 1/2 months, Herson and Deck traveled the perimeter of the country, exploring towns and cities in search of typos. They found 437 typos and were able to correct more than half of them.” (npr.org – August 26,2010)
Can you imagine someone devoting 10 weeks of their life to going around and pointing out other people’s mistakes? Actually, I can. In fact, some people seem to devote their whole lives to that endeavor. I’m sure you know a few. You may work with one, go to school with one, you may even live with one. Critics. There seems to be a limitless supply.
That’s why it is so important that as Christians we live our lives differently. In a critical world that loves to tear down, God calls us to encourage and build up. If you read the book of Acts it seems one of the main duties of early church leaders was encouragement. The apostles nicknamed Joseph, a Levite from Cyprus, Barnabas (which means son of encouragement) and when John Mark bombed out on his first missions trip Barnabas picked him up and encouraged him to try again. “Judas and Silas, who themselves were prophets, said much to encourage and strengthen the brothers.” (Acts 15:32) “After Paul and Silas came out of the prison, they went to Lydia’s house, where they met with the brothers and encouraged them.” (Acts 16:40) “(Paul) traveled through (Macedonia), speaking many words of encouragement to the people.” (Acts 20:12) In fact, Hebrews 3:13 commands us to “encourage one another daily” and Hebrews 10:25 says one of the main reasons we need to come to church is to encourage each other.
So here’s my challenge to you this week: Instead of going around pointing out people’s mistakes, look for people doing things well and point that out. Thank them. Encourage them. Look for the good in others and compliment them. Make a special effort to encourage those who probably don’t get much encouragement. Make encouragement your mission this week at work, at school, at home. What a difference you will make.
THIS SUNDAY we will continue our “Don’t Just Hang in There” series by looking at how to “Value Grace Over Works.” Sometimes when we are going through a rough patch we tend to wonder if maybe God is punishing us for some wrong we did, or for something right that we didn’t do. When we think that way we show a lack of understanding of the relationship of grace that God offers us. Come and learn about the freedom of life in the grace of Christ.
