Lynn Jones: Encouragement for times of discouragement
By Lynn Jones
A golf ball that is dropped onto a cement floor displays amazing resilience. It bounces back. I wish we all could be as resilient as that golf ball, but repeated disappointments tend to take the resilience out of us.
In the Peanuts comic strip, Charlie Brown is the pitcher on his baseball team, but he never wins a game. After the most recent loss, Linus tried to console Charlie Brown. He said, “Don’t be discouraged, Charlie Brown. That’s the way life is. You win some and you lose some.” Charlie responded, “That would be nice.”
Life often comes at us with many difficulties. In fact, when you read the Bible, you discover that many persons of faith were overwhelmed by the difficulties they faced. Moses went on his mission to Egypt in response to God’s command. The opposition of the Pharaoh was so fierce, however, that Moses was overwhelmed. He complained that God had not rescued His people at all like He had promised (Ex. 5:22-23).
Elijah ran for his life before Jezebel. When he ran as far as he could go, he prayed that he might die. He said, “I have had enough, Lord” (1 Kings 19:4).
God called a reluctant Jeremiah to go on mission for Him, but he encountered only rejection and downright persecution. Jeremiah complained to God: “O Lord, you deceived me, and I was deceived.” He complained, “Cursed be the day I was born” (Jer. 20:7,14). He wanted to escape. He said, “Oh that I had in the wilderness a lodging place of wayfaring men; that I might leave my people and go from them” (Jer. 9:2).
Moses, Elijah, and Jeremiah—three great men of God, but all of them suffered through times of overwhelming disappointment and discouragement. It is part of our human condition. Faith in God, even great faith, does not put us off-limits.
One of the greatest things that we can do is offer to each other the gift of encouragement. The English word “encourage” is derived from two Latin words meaning “to put the heart into”. That’s what encouragement does—to those who are disheartened it puts the heart back into them.
When the cars are leaving the church parking lot on a Sunday morning after a worship service, sometimes there is one car that is left—someone’s battery is dead. What happens then is that someone comes alongside that car with jumper cables and jumpstarts the engine. Soon they are on their way.
I like to think that in some far greater way, something like that may have occurred in the worship service. Someone who was discouraged and did not feel like going on has drawn strength from that service to do so. The writer of Hebrews said, “Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another” (Heb. 10:24).
Lynn Jones is a retired pastor who lives in Oxford. He does supply preaching for churches in his area and often serves as an interim pastor. Jones is also an author, has written two books and writes a weekly newspaper column. He may be contacted at: kljones45@yahoo.com
