Therefore encourage one another and build up one another, just as you also are doing. –I  Thessalonians 5:11

     Four times in the ‘60s and ‘70s the tiny banks of the Fishing River in Mosby, Missouri, failed to hold the raging waters in check.  Four times in fifteen years we sorted out what was left of our possessions in the front yard as sightseers slowly drove through the town.  Four times all was lost except life.

     But the fifth! 

     Once again the heavens opened and the dams failed and the rivers raged.  But this fifth time, the water got just to the doorsteps and no further.  As the sun peeked through the clouds, we stood in our still-dry homes and rejoiced at our blessing. 

     The rejoicing was short-lived.  In an effort to help our beleaguered town, the governor called out the National Guard, and like the cavalry of old they now rolled into our tiny town with huge trucks filled with pumps and supplies and troops.  On another day, we’d have cheered wildly at their arrival, but not this day.

     For the weight of their trucks and the speed of their triumphal entry combined to push the water level just high enough to reach into all our homes for a fifth time.

     As a workplace chaplain (and even before that in my tenure as a human resource manager) I see many Christians whose lives are like that fifth flood; not yet swamped but barely able to hold out the flood of discouragement.  Once strong in their faith, circumstances have combined to leave them staggered, and they stand by helplessly as the waters swirl around them.  Others were never strong in their faith, either because they ignored God’s command to grow in grace and knowledge; or because their faith is so new they’ve not yet had time to grow. 

     Into this tentative place in their spiritual journey ride Christian soldiers made of sterner stuff; the cavalry, if you will, of Calvary.  What they do next lifts the spirits of their brothers and sisters in Christ, or serves as the final whoosh that sweeps the waters over the top.

     We are much too quick with our condemnation of those we think should know better.  Much too eager to bark at their failures. 

     There is most assuredly a time and a place for firm rebuke; but that time and place is rarely reached when we think it is; and our decision to wade into troubled waters with terse words often wreaks havoc.  Hard words rarely right broken lives.

     We must find ways to be known to each other as encouragers.  Even in moments when those who should know better disappoint us with their choices, we must consider carefully how our next words will affect them.  Our goal is restoration, not retribution.

     Having basked in the glory of Christ’s unfettered forgiveness, let us find ways to carry that joy to those standing just above the waters of discouragement this day.

--Randy Kilgore

rkilgore@marketplacenetwork.com

www.marketplacenetwork.com