Encourage– “To inspire with courage, to breathe courage into one another”
Nearly a month ago I heard this definition of encourage durning a sermon at a church that I was leading worship at. I wrote it down on the back of an empty offering envelope and I’ve spent sometime thinking about what it means to encourage and to inspire. But today it really seemed to make sense as the day unfolded…
After rolling out of bed at 10 AM eastern time I met my good friend Bill Pierce at Teppanyaki Grill & Buffet, it’s our favorite chinese place on the east side of Indy. It’s awesome if you love chinese food and even more awesome when your super hungry. But Bill and I don’t just go there to pig out on the Chinese food and leave five hundred pounds heavier. We go there to talk, we hit a recored low of only filling two plates apiece, however, we had our fill with more than just Chinese food.
Bill is one of those guys if you don’t really know him you might look at his life and say “Wow that guy is just crazy”. See Bill is a high energy, passionate, middle school pastor, who is married and has five kids under the age of five. Now that sounds crazy but it’s NOT, it’s just Bill. Bill lives life with gusto.
Define Gusto..
Gusto: “A hearty or keen enjoyment, an individual taste all it’s own.”
Bill lives life with gusto… he enjoys life but he has a way about him that is just Bill. There are times where he will do the most unexpected things… My favorite and most disturbing memory of Bill was when I was in middle school camp a long time ago and Bill was an intern under one of the pastors. During the talent show the last night he licked peanut butter out of another man’s arm pit. If that were the only encounter with Bill that I ever had I would have called him crazy and sick… yet I know now it’s just Bill.
He lives with gusto.
Watching Bill growing up has always inspired me. As a sixth grade kid I didn’t want to lick peanut butter out of another guys arm pit but Bill won every guys respect for the way he really grossed out every girl at that camp that year. Bill has done some unexpected and surprising things in life and to this day Bill keeps inspiring me. Whenever, I come home from college Bill and I have tried to take the time to sit down and talk, because we believe there are things that we can encourage each other on.
Today was one of those days. As soon as we sat down there was a buzz between us as we started to share what is going on in our lives. We shared our where’s, how’s and what’s of what we believe God is doing in our lives and where He is leading us. Bill and I both have big dreams about what God is doing in our lives. They are both similar but different. When we talk about those dreams it feeds our collective excitement about what the future holds.
Define Future..
Future: “Something that will exist or happen”
We both believe these things that we have been dreaming and envisioning will happen in time. But over our conversation I was encouraged by Bill talking about how we shouldn’t be shy of the future, but we should be taking action to make it happen. We both believe that many times people say we are waiting on God’s timing to do this or that, but God’s timing never comes and they never do what they believe God called them to do.
So if God calls you to do something do it without delay….
There are a number of things that Bill told me I should go for and do in the next year or so. God’s time is now and we have to trust that he will work through us…
Be encouraged to breathe inspiration into the people around you.
Bill breathes inspiration into my soul
In sharing my dreams I hope to breathe inspiration back into him.
I hope to breathe inspiration into all those that I meet.
See breathe is a vital part of life. We all need this air that we are pulling into our lungs and pumping back out. We all need the oxygen or we are all but dead. We all need encouragement. We all need inspiration. So why not breathe it into others…
Encouraging others may mean we have to step outside of our comfort zone. To inspire others we may have to take some risks. To encourage others we may have to show who we honestly are, hurts and all. To inspire others we may have to search in different or far off places. To be encouraged we may have to admit that we need someone to breathe life back into our weary lungs. To inspire we may live life in a way that most of the world says is crazy…
But when the world says we are crazy be encouraged. God is calling you to something that may be crazy to them. It may be different, it may be risky, it may hurt, it may lead you through failure but those failures will make you better, it may lead you to places you never dreamed of going and doing things you never dreamed of doing.
In short Bill encourages me not only in the way that he lives and speaks but by he breathes.
Be Encouraged.
Let this inspire you…
“Just do whatever God calls you to do the moment that it is clear to you. Do not procrastinate; do not hesitate; do not deviate from whatever course of action He calls you to. But I want to warn you, the closer you walk with Christ, the greater the faith required. The more you trust him, the more you’ll risk on his behalf. The more you love him, the more you will love others. If you genuinely embrace His sacrifice, you will joyfully embrace a sacrificial life”
–Erwin Raphael McManus
Take the risk to breathe inspiration through the lungs of encouragement who knows it might start something crazy that might just change the world. Take courage and breathe it in…
-Caleb Ross Hunter
The Adventure of Dragon Hunting 