Clergy/Leaders’ Mail-list No. 1-045 (Family Issues)

(From All About Families)

THE ELEMENT OF RISK (Encouragement – Part 3)

by Norman and Ann Bales

Can you be sure that your attempt to encourage will be understood, appreciated, responded to and reciprocated? Unfortunately the answer is “no”.

Read the story of Hosea and Gomer in the Bible. Gomer forsook her husband and children to become a prostitute, yet Hosea’s love for her never died. Eventually he bought her back on the slave market and said to her “You are to live with me many days; you must not be a prostitute or be intimate with any man, and I will live with you” (Hosea 3:3). Did she melt under the power of Hosea’s love and offer him affection and warmth during those “many days?” The Bible doesn’t say. There’s a powerful lesson here, however, in the example of Hosea. We cannot love unless we are willing to run the risk of being hurt.

To us, Barnabas is one of the great heroes of the faith. His name means “Son of Encouragement”. He was well named because everything we know about him suggests he was a man who made encouragement his life’s work.

His willingness to encourage was so overwhelming that it contributed to a temporary rift between himself and Paul. His kinsman, John Mark had abandoned Paul and Barnabas on the first missionary journey. When they were ready to go a second time, Barnabas wanted to take John Mark along, ” . . . but Paul did not think it wise to take him, because he had deserted them in Pamphylia and had not continued with them in the work” (Acts 15:38). Nevertheless, Barnabas didn’t want to give up on John Mark.

His positive spirit of encouragement was eventually justified. When Paul wrote his last letter to Timothy, he said, “Get Mark and bring him with you, because he is helpful to me in my ministry.” (2 Timothy 4:11). Sometimes the most encouraging thing we can do is to offer someone another chance.

In the 1953 World Series, the old Brooklyn Dodgers played the New York Yankees. In one of the games, the Yankees were leading by one run. Carl Erskine, the Dodger pitcher, loaded the bases with nobody out. Normally that means the pitcher heads to the shower. Chuck Dressen, the Dodger’s manager left the dugout and walked slowly to the mound. He asked Erskine to hand him the ball. Everybody in the stands knew that he would call for a pitcher from the bullpen. There was only one question to be answered. Did the manager want a right hander or a left hander?

But after Erskine handed Dressen the ball, the manager didn’t signal the bullpen. Instead he handed the ball back to Erskine and said, “You’re my man, Carl. Go get ’em.” Carl Erskine struck out the side. With each inning, he seemed to get stronger. In the ninth inning, the Dodger bats produced two runs and Brooklyn won. After the game, reporters asked Erskine about his remarkable turnaround. He said, “Dressen did it. He believed in me and I had to make good.”

Sometimes the most encouraging thing we can do for our family members is give them our confidence. Sometimes that means sticking your neck out. Will you get burned on occasion? You can count on it. Some of the people, whom you really want to trust, will disappoint you. But if you will run the risk, you will belong to that small, but elite group of people who are sensitive to the needs of others and leave their mark indelibly imprinted on human lives.

Conclusion

We conclude these thoughts with some additional words of wisdom from Willard Tate. He said, “If you’ll work at making it a habit to encourage others, you’ll discover that it’s the very best way to live. There’s nothing like it if you want to stay young, energetic, enthusiastic and filled with life and joy. If you want to cheer up, cheer up someone else.” To this we would add. Start with your wife, your husband, your son, your daughter, your father or your mother.”

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