Be A Barnabas Project - Let’s Get It Started (Part 1)
If you’ve been following along for the last few weeks, we are in the middle of a project called Be A Barnabas, where the end goal is to start a movement of encouragers from community to community.
If you’re wondering, “Who is this Barnabas guy,” the answer is that he was one of the great encouragers in all of scripture. So when I ask you to Be A Barnabas, I’m simply asking you to be an encourager in your circle of influence and let’s see if a little spark of encouragement can start a fire that burns in your community.
I starting by asking people: 1) Who was an encourager to you and what impact did they make; 2) In what ways do you try to encourage others?
Now we’re taking that feedback and we’re putting it to action. Over the next 10 blogs, I’m going to do two things: highlight a real-life encourager from my life and give 10 ways you can be an encourager. At the end of those 10 weeks, we will have a list of 100 Ways To Encourage Others, which will be posted permanently on fuel2ignite.
So without further ado…
A Letter That Changed My Life:
There are some teachers you will never forget. Mrs. Sanders was one of the great ones.
She was my English teacher in both my sophomore and senior years in high school. She was a kind and sweet lady who truly loved inspiring others to grasp the wonder and beauty of great literary works. For instance, she inspired my love of the play Our Town. She also happened to be the pianist at our church and every time our choir sang Bless Be The Tie That Binds, Mrs. Sanders and I would share a knowing wink and nod (because of the prominence of the song in the play).
But it was a challenging letter that she wrote me that shaped my life. I remember doing a unit on poetry in her class and we were focusing on some famous poem and, to be honest, I didn’t get it. I remember blurting out in exasperated fashion, “Why don’t they just say what they mean instead of using all of that flowery language!”
She calmly answered my question (even though I had rudely interrupted the class) and deftly got the discussion back on track.
I didn’t think anything else of it, but the next day I came to class she handed me a letter. The letter was basically a challenge to me to go beyond the surface and embrace learning and digging for the deeper meaning in things. I remember her writing, “You have a fine mind and can continue to go through life racking up A’s with slipshod effort or you can dare to dig deeper and embrace the meaning behind those words.”
At first I was like, “All this because I didn’t like a poem.” But then it hit me that she cared enough to challenge me to reach my potential and to learn for the sake of learning, not just for making the grade.
She both communicated her belief in me AND that I could do more with the mind God had given me. It completely altered the way I viewed learning and I was a better student for it.
By the way, I saved that letter for at least 20 years before I sadly lost it in a spring cleaning mishap. I probably pulled that letter out dozens of times through the years.
Ways To Be An Encouragement:
(1-10 of 100)
1. Be a cheerleader for another person’s dreams.
2. Pay for the person’s order behind you in the drive-through.
3. Make it a point to help a shy person feel included in the group.
4. Write a note to a former teacher to let them know what they meant to you and what they did for you.
5. Bring a friend their favorite cup of coffee or snack.
6. Help a worrier or someone who is prone to anxiety see the small victories and accomplishments in their problems.
7. Recognize someone’s recent achievements by calling them or sending a congratulatory text.
8. Be a shoulder of support when a friend is going through a difficult season.
9. When someone has gone through the loss of a loved one, set calendar events in your phone to check in on them every so often.
10. Compliment someone on their outfit or attire (in an appropriate way, of course!)