A Snapshot Worth Remembering (Revisited)

"So seize any opportunity the Lord gives you to do good things and be a blessing to everyone..." — Galatians 6:10, The Voice

Reflections on serving the community with a meal, and observing with the camera lens that some of the most important ministries that any of us can do take place before anyone walks through the door (or walks into our day)…

Lord, help us to never underestimate the renewing, refreshing, re-energizing, hope-filled, comforting power of a simple spoken word of encouragement.

There is no one who is exempt from needing one.

Even the strongest, boldest, most determined, seemingly most together person gets completely worn out.

This is no small matter.

This is huge.

Because You have urged, commanded, exhorted, reminded, and poked us — fathers, mothers, friends, co-workers, spiritual parents and mentors — from just about every angle, and more than 70 times in Your Word, to encourage one another.

In the household of faith, yes.

But even to those who may not know You (yet).

"To proclaim good news to the poor...

To bind up the brokenhearted."

To make war against the darkness of negativity, hateful words and deeds, and the fear-induced spirit of the 24/7 news cycle,

By speaking wonderful words of life into someone's atmosphere of weariness.

Because You have always been the One who comforts the downcast not just in theory but in person, as prophesied and then modeled in Your lived-out life:

The Lord God has given Me, His Servant, the tongue of disciples, as One who is taught,

That I may know how to sustain the weary with a word.

He awakens Me morning by morning,

He awakens My ear to listen as a disciple, as One who is taught. (Isaiah 50:4)  

It's the worship song that never ends:

"As the Father has sent Me, even so I am sending you."

"The beautiful thing about encouragement is that anyone can do it."— Chuck Swindoll

Republished from last fall in honor of Leo McQuillan (shown in the middle of the photo at the top, greeting people at one of my church's community dinners), who graduated to Heaven yesterday afternoon. Leo lived this Vitamin. The definition of "faithful servant," Leo truly made everyone feel welcome with a genuine, enthusiastic and often humorous greeting, and never hesitated to proclaim the Good News "even to those who may not know You (yet)." The joy of the Lord was Leo's strength, and he is now experiencing it in all of its fullness. The torch has been passed...