Hi All, hope you have all had a good week. We will be meeting together at The Quarry at 7:30pm if you want to join us in conversation. We have tried to meet in the bay window just around the corner from the main entrance (turn left at the bar). See you then.
The world is full of worry, stress and challenges at present, with countries at war with one another, government fighting with one another, covid rising again, the cost of living continuing to increase and alongside these there are our own individual worries, stresses and challenges.
Through my work and personal relationships its clear to hear that people are tired, drained of energy and finding it hard to keep going, but keep going we must, but at what cost? At who’s cost? The cost of the continued state of living this way is our health; physical, mental, emotional and spiritual; it costs relationships and increases isolation. It feeds negative behaviours and attitudes to be able to cope with what is happening in and around us every day.
Life is at times relentless and on top of that there is all the questioning and challenges about what we should or should not be doing, who we should or should not be, what we should or should not believe and who we should or should not listen too. The consistent questioning and challenge leaves me personally mentally tired and my heart seeking desperately to find the joy and encouragement that there are good things about life, people and faith.
I am not saying that we should not be challenged or challenge systems and behaviours but there needs to be a balance. There needs to also be conversation that encourages, helping to remember the good things about life, people and faith. To create space for encouragement to happen and what it is at this moment that brings us support, confidence and hope. What is missing in enabling encouragement to take place? And how can we create space and relationships that can give honest encouragement?
What do I mean by honest encouragement? According to the Oxford dictionary encouragement is the action of giving to someone support, confidence or hope. It is also described as, persuasion to do or to continue something or the act of trying to stimulate the development of an activity, state or belief. I think this is where encouraging can cross a fine boundary and become the need to persuade or stimulate the development of something else. So how can we be authentic in encouraging ourselves and one another without wanting or needing to cross the fine boundary into persuasion?
My question of encouragement in faith also comes from conversations about faith and church. While agreed that there are things that need to be challenged , there are lots of elements within faith and church that are good and bring the needed encouragement to do life supported and with joy. Maybe, like archaeologists working on historical sites, we need to sieve through what is needing to change or not be changed instead of throwing the whole thing out or completely dismissing something, losing what is good and helpful at the same time.
And this is where my reflection on encouragement in faith has left me, with the question how can we maintain a good balance of challenging and at the same time encouraging the faith in practical, supportive ways to bring hope and confidence to life even when things may seem so dark in the world.
Questions:
- What has been the best encouragement you have received?
- Where do you find encouragement for life, people and faith?
- What is missing in enabling encouragement to take place?
- How can we create space and relationships that can give honest encouragement?
- How can we be authentic in encouraging ourselves and one another without crossing the fine boundary into persuasion?
- How can we maintain a good balance of challenging and at the same time encouraging faith in practical, supportive ways to bring hope and confidence to life even when things may seem so dark in the world.
