Editorial for July 21, 2005
By Jim White
“May the God who gives endurance and encouragement give you a spirit of unity among yourselves as you follow Christ Jesus” (Romans 15:5).
Ever lose heart? My guess is you have gotten discouraged. I certainly have. It's common to the human condition, I'm told.
Discouragement envelopes even God's greatest servants (see 1 Kings 19). Perhaps it is the coupling of an innate sense of inadequacy with the enormity of a seemingly impossible task that causes us to sit and feel sorry for ourselves instead of rolling up our sleeves and doing what we can. After all, we reason, what can one person do?
In fact, the world is a much better place because some of us humans paid no attention to that voice inside that says, “There's nothing you can do, so why try.” For example, we have all been blessed by Fannie Crosby's hymns. If anybody had reason to feel sorry for herself, she did. Blind from childhood, Fannie could have played the “if I could only see” game and allowed her handicap to become an excuse for being defeated. This is not to say that she was never discouraged-certainly she was. But she would not give in to her discouragement. In a poem entitled The Blind Girl's Lament, she wrote:
Oh! what is sight; a gift I ne'er can know,-
But let me never murmur or repine-
Why should these eyes with tears of grief o'erflow
For that which never, can be mine.
Fanny refused to believe she couldn't make a difference, so she did what she could. So, she wrote hymns-enough in her lifetime to fill 15 hymnals. We have been blessed by such inspirational songs as To God the the Glory and Blessed Assurance, Jesus is Mine and Rescue the Perishing. Although I have not seen it myself, I am told that chiseled upon her tombstone are the words, “She did what she could.”
Or, consider William Carey, shoemaker by day and missionary visionary by night. It was he who challenged those following him with the words, “Attempt great things for God, expect great things from God.” Although not well educated, he did what he could. Through his influence the modern missionary movement was launched. On Oct. 2, 1792, the Baptist Missionary Society was organized and Carey became its first missionary. By the time he sailed for India, this part-time preacher and shoemaker had taught himself Hebrew, Greek, Latin, Dutch and French. What a giant among our Baptist forebears!
Why would this man have ever experienced discouragement? He lived with it. His beloved wife did not want to go to India and never adjusted to life there. Anguish for her and her unhappiness weighed heavily upon Carey's mind. Who would have blamed him if he had thrown in the towel and quit? But what if William Carey had? As a missionary in India, he started 20 churches, supervised translating God's Word into 42 languages and dialects, established the Serampore College to train ministers (which continues to the present) and printed 212,000 copies of the Bible.
Obviously, many more examples could be offered, but the point of it all is to get us to think about what human beings are capable of when they are infused with a sense of divine calling and purpose, when they actually believe they can make a difference, and when they can overcome discouragement.
I am thinking about the pastor who has gotten so discouraged and so beaten-up that rather than risk any more hurt has decided to play it safe and not even try to make a difference. Who would blame him if he quit, and who could judge him if he did? Still, if he could get past the discouragement, who knows what kingdom work will be done?
I am thinking of staff members whose relationship with the senior pastor leaves them feeling discouraged and resentful-perhaps with good reason. But if they can overcome their feelings they will yet know the rewards of work well done.
I am thinking about the deacon who longs to see the church rise to its full height and strength, but doesn't know where to begin. I am thinking of young women and men who believe the church does not value them. Kingdom work waits to be done and Kingdom rewards wait to be awarded for those who will overcome.
But overcoming is not a solo endeavor. Among the spiritual gifts God bestowed upon the church is the gift of encouragement. God knows human beings so well that he knew we would often be discouraged. He knew also that some might simply quit-and if that happened the church would be weakened. So God put within each of us the capacity to be an encourager to someone else!
Some have pronounced gifts given by the Spirit to be an encourager. So if you have that gift, use it! If you don't have that gift, encourage someone anyway! And, if you really, really need someone to use that gift for your benefit, hang on! Don't give up. Help is on the way. You may be the one God is going to use to bless the world. By the way, despite what some people apparently believe, the ability to discourage someone else is not a spiritual gift.
Jim White is editor and business manager of the Religious Herald.