You Matter

We are living in an age of discouragement. A discouragement born of both activity and inactivity.

The activity behind this discouragement is the critical spirit that is rampant in our world. It seems you can’t read or hear anything that’s not from the perspective of pointing out what’s wrong – often through hate and anger. Spend some time over at Digg and you’ll see what I mean. Or just read the news. Most articles contain adjectives and/or adverbs that contain a veiled – or not – cut at the subject. And don’t even get me started on most of what’s on TV.

On the other hand is the inactivity behind this discouragement – the absence of encouragement. Oh sure we say “great job”, but what’s missing in our society is hope. Hope that we – each and every one of us – can and should be working towards. We should be working towards what we know we’re called to be. People will not do that without encouragement.

Put these together, a vile, hate-filled critical spirit and the lack of an empowered hope and you get what we all know well. People content to take up space by simply getting to the end of life with a minimum of trouble. But they’re not content. They are sad, bored, longing, questioning and frustrated. And sadly, our churches aren’t helping much either. We may not cut each other to shreds (um…yeah), but we don’t provide meaningful encouragement.

We do an excellent job of teaching about prayer, worship, service, tithing, faith, healing and scripture, but we’re missing the part about life. The part that talks about how/why to have healthy marriages, how to be successful at work, how to deal with the difficulties of employees and employers, bills, juggling all our priorities and still enjoying a laugh or two. We’re missing the part where most people WON’T become missionaries and Pastors, and that’s okay.

In fact, it’s MORE than okay, it’s supposed to be that way.

Be encouraged. Be encouraged to learn and protect your calling – whether called to have a job, be a singer, start a company, invent the next life changing widget, whatever. Next, work your guts out to succeed (as in the opposite of fail). Your success matters. Not only in the sense that we need what you’re going to do, but we need to be inspired.

Which brings me to my last point. You can succeed.  You have everything you need to do what you’re called to do. You have yourself, those around you, access to education, mentors, etc. Know that what you experience everyday matters. That God is passionately interested in your success and that success is critically important to His success.

Know that you matter. Live fully alive.