WORDS OF ENCOURAGEMENT

“Therefore encourage one another and build each other up, just as in fact you are doing. Now we ask you, brothers and sisters, to acknowledge those who work hard among you, who care for you in the LORD and who admonish you. Hold them in the highest regard in love because of their work. Live in peace with each other.” (1 Thessalonians 5:11-13 NIV)

You have it easily in your power to increase the sum total of this world's happiness now. How? By giving a few words of sincere appreciation to someone who could really use it. It may be someone who is lonely or discouraged. It may be your spouse, your pastor, the nurse who cared for you, the clerk at the store, your Bible study leader, the waitstaff at the restaurant, or your child’s teacher. Perhaps you will forget tomorrow the kind words you say today, but the recipient may cherish them over a lifetime.

-- Adapted from Dale Carnegie


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NEAR TO THE BROKENHEARTED

Ernest Hemingway in “A Farewell to Arms” writes: “The world breaks everyone, then some become strong in the broken places.” Jesus in the parable of the foundations reminds us that there is no escape from the problems, hurts, and storms of life. They are part of the human scene and the dynamic of human relationships. A modern-day theologian and pastor, Henri Nouwen, who writes from the perspective of the “wounded healer,” speaks of the wounds of life with words such as “alienation, separation, isolation, and loneliness.” We all know firsthand about the wounds, heartbreaks, and shattered dreams in these frustrating disappointments. Some people know dramatically the pain of rejection, failure, verbal abuse, divorce, grief, and sorrow.

And sometimes it seems that no one understands or cares. In reading Jesus’ parable of the Good Samaritan, many people in our world today relate quickly to the victim in the story, beaten, left bleeding, and unable to cry out. And people who should care pass by and offer no help or understanding. But let me hurry to say that the good news for them and for us is that God is the Good Samaritan to a wounded world. God is aware of our hurts and the wounds of our life. Listen to the words of the psalmist: “The Lord is near to the brokenhearted,” “He heals the brokenhearted, and binds their wounds.” (Psalm 34:18; 147:3)

-- James W. Moore and Bob J. Moore in “Lord, Give Me Patience!... And Give It to Me Right Now!”

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GOD WITH US

"All right then, the Lord Himself will give you the sign. Look! The virgin will conceive a Child! She will give birth to a Son and will call Him Immanuel (which means 'God is with us')."  (Isaiah 7:14 NLT)

God comes to the woman who feels in exile in her own marriage, for the man who grieves the loss of life dreams.  God comes to the child who lives on the street, for the parents who struggle to feed and clothe their children. God comes to the one whose loneliness or depression intensifies every Christmas. ...

Emmanuel -- God-with-Us -- is coming to us, to meet us wherever we are -- happy or sad, joyous or grieving, God comes to stand with us, whatever our condition.  And we thank God for that promised gift of presence.

-- Beth A. Richardson in Child of the Light: Walking through Advent and Christmas  (Nashville, Tenn.: Upper Room Books, 2005) Used with permission.

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